Holstein Kiel have Hannover 96 as guests in their last home game before the World Cup and winter break. The northern duel is also the clash between two second division teams that have found their way to success after a bumpy start to the season.
The Hanoverians in particular are in fourth place after the recent 2-0 win against Fortuna Düsseldorf and are very close to the top places. 96 coach Stefan Leitl does not want to allow any dreams before the game on Friday evening (6.30 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter): “We are not talking about promotion. We have always communicated our goal openly and honestly: we want to be better than in the past years, want a single-digit place in the table,” he told NDR.
Leitl sees a positive development: “I think that the boys have improved bit by bit, have worked their way into this season. That’s why they deserve the 27 points.”
Hannover is very stable, especially defensively
Nevertheless, the 96 coach also registered against Düsseldorf that his team was under a lot of pressure, especially in the second half, and that it was only thanks to an outstanding keeper, Ron-Robert Zieler, that they didn’t concede a goal: “It’s good that Ron has this form and keeps us in the game,” said Leitl.
But Zieler’s front men are also doing a good job this season, so the Lower Saxony have not conceded a goal for the seventh time. Therefore, Hannover will “go boldly to Kiel” and “show a good game there,” announced the coach.
“Storks” last season without a goal against 96
Last season, Hannover kept a clean sheet in both duels with Kiel – the “Reds” even celebrated a smooth 3-0 win on the Baltic Sea. Leitl also wants something similar for the game on Friday: “We now want to use the few hours until the next game to hit it again.”
Holstein Kiel is in flow
The Kiel team, on the other hand, can close an extremely successful calendar year with a win: While they managed to jump from the bottom of the table to midfield in the second half of the previous season, the Schleswig-Holstein team is now on the verge of making the leap into the top group.
“Now get another threesome and then have a nice Christmas.”
— Kiel’s coach Marcel Rapp
Coach Marcel Rapp’s team is currently only in eighth place, but they only have three points fewer than Hannover – and have only lost one of the last seven games.
Holtby: “A difficult opponent for everyone””
“There’s a lot of quality in our team,” said midfielder Lewis Holtby after the recent 0-0 draw at FC St. Pauli: “The way we play makes us tough opponents for everyone.” Coach Rapp set the direction for Norduell: “Now we want to do everything we can to win the last home game so that we can go into the break with a good feeling.”
Possible lineups:
Holstein Kiel: Dähne – Schulz, Wahl, Lorenz – Erras – Korb, Mühling, Holtby, Reese – Skrzybski – Wriedt
Hannover 96: Zieler – Dehm, Börner, Arrey-Mbi – Muroya, Köhn – Besuschkow, Kunze – Nielsen – Bier, Teuchert
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NDR 2 Sports | 11/11/2022 | 11:03 p.m
