Hannover 0 - 3 Düsseldorf (369049408)

Dark skies made the crowd of 4572 at Niedersachsenstadion a little nervous, but the rain held off. Emanuelis Roževičius was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Janus Bruus and Ludwig Steiger. Hannover decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Serey - Dathe, Dujka, Ankenbrand - Boysen, Lehwaldt, Fliehser, Tatti, Niedermayr - Baranek, Bogićević.

A 5-4-1 alignment was the formation of choice for Düsseldorf. The following players took the field: Månsson - Barre, Török, Ritsch, Chevillard, Kováč - Zukal-Holinger, Casal, Bundus, Garcia - Burhan.

Today, Hannover's strategy involved concentrating on the flanks for their attacks. The guests took the lead 27 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in E. Burhan scoring to make it 0 - 1. Hannover were determined to attack on the wing and their central attempts were constantly abandoned in favour of the wings. E. Burhan came close to extending the visitors' lead when he found himself completely unmarked in front of the goal after a pass through the middle. He tried to lift the ball over Y. Serey but overcooked it and hit the bar instead. With 39 minutes played, seemingly due to lack of experience, C. Lehwaldt needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. 0 - 1 was the score after the first half. Düsseldorf had most of the ball, with 57 percent of possession.

After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, B. Garcia got himself booked. The manager of Düsseldorf was not happy. The home crowd was not impressed when E. Burhan came in from the right, shooting hard to score after 65 minutes. Düsseldorf were now up 0 - 2. With 66 minutes played, T. Bundus of Düsseldorf fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. B. Garcia left the field with a smile on his face as he was substituted 70 minutes into the game, as his team was in the lead. J. Maassen was the replacement. Düsseldorf increased their lead after 73 minutes when S. Török broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 3, much to the home crowd's dismay. The players of Düsseldorf now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. After 85 minutes, Hannover switched R. Niedermayr with F. Zarnewenz, hoping for a quick impact on the pitch. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Düsseldorf, with 60 percent of the ball.

Hannover's best player was R. Baranek. U. Bogićević on the other hand, had a terrible day. Düsseldorf's top performer was clearly E. Burhan. On the other hand, J. Maassen's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 3.