As of: October 26, 2025 3:28 p.m
Hannover 96 deservedly won a heated Lower Saxony side against Eintracht Braunschweig 3-0 (2-0) on Sunday. The “Reds” remain at the top of the second division. BTSV, which striker Erencan Yardimci did a disservice with his sending off, is still stuck in the bottom half of the table.
It was Hanover’s first win in Braunschweig since February 2021. At that time, the “Reds” turned the game around after falling behind (2-1). They didn’t have to repeat such an effort on Sunday in the Eintracht Stadium because striker Yardimci made a mistake early in the game that was fatal for the hosts and was sent off with a red card for assault (20th).
For Sven Köhler, who had seen his team well in the game until the situation, it was “the game-deciding scene” of the 183rd edition of the Niedersachsensenderby. When we were outnumbered, said the Eintracht captain, “we tried everything.” In addition to the expulsion, his coach Heiner Backhaus also cited what he saw as the poor “boxing defense” as a “sticking point”.
“It will be expensive for him. That was a disservice. Such a sending off completely changed the structure of the game for us.”
Eintracht coach Heiner Backhaus
With regard to Yardimci’s action, which choked opponent Boris Tomiak, the coach said: “There is no excuse for that. It has no place in football.” Backhaus also announced a fine for the 23-year-old: “It will be expensive for him. Such a sending off completely changes the statics of the game for us.”
Because with one man more, the guests had a relatively easy game: Benjamin Källman with a double strike (32nd and 36th) before and Daisuke Yokota (61st) after the break ultimately achieved safe success for 96. Double goalscorer Källman was very “happy with the performance” after the game. In particular, the Finn praised “the way we played.”
96 coach Titz praises his team: “Very controlled and confident”
This was also underlined by coach Christian Titz, who was impressed by the fact that “we played very controlled and confident from the start and allowed almost nothing.” The decisive factor was that his team largely adhered to the previously discussed principles – “high pressing” and “ball control”.
Since both clubs have already been eliminated from the DFB Cup, they won’t be playing in the league until next weekend: 96 will be visiting Elversberg for the top game on Friday (6.30 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter), while BTSV will be playing at 1. FC Nürnberg on Saturday (1 p.m., also in the NDR Livecenter).
Hectic start: Pyro interruption and Yardimci red
At the beginning the relationship between the flow of the game and the interruption of the game in Braunschweig was very unevenly distributed. Referee Robert Hartmann (Wangen im Allgäu) had to interrupt the game for around five minutes after three minutes. The visiting fans had set off a lot of pyrotechnics in their block, dark smoke drifted through the stadium on Hamburger Strasse.
Afterwards, both teams approached the basics of a football game – initially, however, more through the combative aspect of the sport. Hannover was the first team to focus on football and almost made it 1-0. However, Eintracht keeper Ron-Thorben Hoffmann parried Tomiak’s header well (17th).
The moment that decided the game: Referee Robert Hartmann shows Braunschweig’s Erencan Yardimci (center in yellow) the red card.
Just three minutes later, the 96 defender was in the spotlight again: After a foul by Hannover’s Hayate Matsuda on Braunschweig’s Florian Flick, Tomiak and “Löwen” striker Yardimci clashed violently a good ten meters from the site of the foul. The Braunschweiger grabbed the defender’s neck with both hands and choked him. Clear assault – red (20th). The fifth expulsion for Eintracht in the tenth league game.
Källman double for Hannover
As a result, the game got pretty heated, referee Hartmann had his hands full and had to diligently hand out yellow cards. It was impossible to think about the flow of the game for many minutes. But with the first successful attack of the game, the guests took the lead. And right winger Mustapha Bundu played a huge part in that. The national player from Sierra Leone beat three Braunschweigers with a strong solo on the right and then played sensationally flat into the middle, where Källman slipped the ball into the goal (32nd).
As well as Bundu had done, the “lions” had not defended with much aggression. And that continued just four minutes later. Husseyn Chakroun moved from the left side into the middle with better Braunschweig support and didn’t hesitate for long. His shot was deflected by Eintracht captain Sven Köhler, in the middle Källman again reacted faster than his opponent and quickly brought the ball onto the goal. BTSV keeper Hoffmann got close, but couldn’t prevent the impact (36′).
The 96 striker’s third goal doesn’t count
As a result, the 26-year-old made strong saves against long-range shots from Enzo Leopold (38′) and Chakroun (39′), thus preventing his team from falling even further behind at the break. Shortly after the restart, Källman almost scored his third goal. The Finn asserted himself robustly and pushed past Hoffmann, but was previously offside (47′).
The hosts were by no means letting themselves down. Coach Backhaus’s team did their best to close the spaces, but hardly even managed to set an offensive tone against the attentively defending Hanoverians. Substitute Levente Szabo had the Lions’ best chance in the 64th minute when he first brought a ball towards the goal with his heel – 96 keeper Nahuel Noll reacted outstandingly – and then miserably put the follow-up shot from five meters wide of the goal.
Yokota makes everything clear – and provokes a pack formation
But it would have only been a cosmetic result anyway, as the guests had finally decided the game three minutes earlier. And the 3-0 result came from a co-production between two substitutes: Kolja Oudenne crossed from the left to Yokota, who took the ball with a strong technical volley at the right post and chased it into the net.
As outstanding as the Japanese scored the goal, he behaved unsportsmanlike shortly before the end when he provoked his opponent Fabio Di Michele Sanchez in several scenes. The result: At the end of an already heated derby, there was also a brief pack formation.
Police report “few incidents”
The police were generally satisfied with how the derby went. As the Braunschweig Police Department and the Hanover Federal Police Inspectorate announced, the day was “generally calm despite few incidents”.
10th matchday, October 26th, 2025 1:30 p.m
R.-T. Hoffmann – Ehlers, Köhler (72. F. Kaufmann), L. Breunig (46. Szabó) – Aydin, Marie (72. S. Sané), Flick, Di Michele Sanchez – C. Conteh (59. Gómez), Tempelmann (46. Heußer) – Yardimci
0
Noll – Ghita, Tomiak, Nawrocki (58th Blank) – Matsuda (46th Oudenne), Leopold, Aseko Nkili (58th Roggow), Neubauer – Bundu (45th + 4 Yokota), Chakroun (72nd Rochelt) – Källman
3
Goals
- 0:1 Källman (32.)
- 0:2 Källman (36.)
- 0:3 Yokota (61.)
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