Three goals in 22 minutes

Hannover 96 comfortably won 2:1 in a friendly against fourth division side Hessen Kassel. Due to the international break certain first team players were missing from the Reds' starting line-up. DaMarcus Beasley, however, was unavailable after tearing a muscle in his left hip.

Jan Schlaudraff was the man on hand in the 9^th minute to give the crowd something to cheer about. Following a brilliant one-two with Hanke, "Schalufi" was able to slip the ball into the back of the Kassel "Lions" net to make it 1:0 to the home side. Just ten minutes later Moritz Stoppelkamp took advantage of a mix-up at the back, for the men in red and white, and put the ball into an empty net with a bemused Hessen team watching on. With a 2:0 lead, Hannover took the tempo out of the match, which allowed the team from Hessen to play themselves into the match towards the end of the first half. Just after parrying away a long range effort from Kassel, Markus Miller had to concede defeat when, in the 31^st minute, Enrico Gaede put the ball past him to pull a goal back for the visitors.

Altin Lala returns

After the half-time break, U-23 player Nico Gießelmann came on in place of the midfield motor man, Manuel Schmiedebach. Youngster Willi Evseev replaced Mike Hanke, who had been struggling with a groin problem. Valdet Rama took the place of Constant Djakpa. Then, in the 65^th minute, the time had come: the lengthy absence of a core 96 player had finally reached an end: the "fighting dwarf" Altin Lala, was brought on in place of Sofian Chahed and was able to play his first few minutes of competitive football having been out with an injury for several months.

We are very happy to see him back in action!

Hannover 96: Miller - Chahed (65. Lala), Haggui, Schulz, Burmeister - Stoppelkamp, Schmiedebach (46. Gießelmann), Stindl, Djakpa (65. Rama) - Hanke (46. Evseev), Schlaudraff.

Goals: 0:1 Schlaudraff (9.), 0:2 Stoppelkamp (18.), 1:2 Gaede (32.)