Hannover 96 had plenty of chances in the top game of the second division. But the Lower Saxony team repeatedly failed in the 0-0 draw against VfL Bochum due to the outstanding guest keeper Timo Horn. He saved several of the hosts’ big chances and couldn’t be beaten by a penalty.
With VfL Bochum, one of the strongest teams in the league presented itself in Lower Saxony. The Bochum team were able to win four of their last five games and have steadily climbed out of the bottom of the table under new coach Uwe Rösler. 96 has never been there in the course of the current season, coach Christian Titz’s team is constantly nibbling away at the promotion places in the narrow field of competitors in the 2nd league.
Hanover takes 15 minutes
With a three-pointer over VfL, 96 was able to jump into the relegation place again, at least overnight. But the guest from the Ruhr area got into the game better. Less than five minutes had been played before Maximilian Wittek failed by a hair’s breadth with a direct shot – his shot was blocked.
After a quarter of an hour, 96 had shed its initial lethargy. Daisuke Yokota got his first chance, but his shot from 13 meters from the left-hand position was missed by VfL keeper Timo Horn. The Titz team was in the game, but their enthusiasm for action was thrown out of their rhythm by an almost ten-minute pyrotechnic interruption.
Källman fails from the point
It was strange: But after the interruption the match noticeably flattened out. Until the 40th minute. Within a few seconds, two Hanover players went down in the Bochum penalty area. Yakota’s fall after a duel with Wittek wasn’t enough for referee Tobias Welz. When Maurice Neubauer fell, the referee pointed to the spot. Alone: Benjamin Källman couldn’t get past Horn with his weakly shot penalty (43′).
The second half needed a little time to spread fun, but in the 60th minute the time had come: Hayate Matsuda suddenly found himself all alone in front of Horn, but the Japanese also shot at the increasingly outstanding Bochum keeper. Sixty seconds later, Källman put a header over the box from a promising position.
Hanover’s pressure remains fruitless
Hanover’s lead was actually long overdue. The pressure steadily increased, but despite all the field superiority against faltering Bochum players, the final precision in the finish was somehow missing. Yakota in particular came to the goal again and again, but missed the goal several times.
And so Bochum finally had the best opportunity in the second half: After a one-two with Philipp Hofmann, Mats Pnewig put the ball on the right post from an acute angle in the 78th minute. And when things went back towards the Bochum goal in the final minutes, Horn was able to crown his top game when he brilliantly thwarted the hosts’ last big chance from Waniss Taibi.
Hanover in Nuremberg, Bochum against Karlsruhe
Hannover will be visiting 1. FC Nürnberg on Sunday afternoon for their last game in 2025 (1:30 p.m.). Bochum welcomes Karlsruher SC on Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m.).