Nürnberg end Hannover’s promotion hopes in thrilling encounter

Hannover will stay in 2. Bundesliga after they were held at home against Nürnberg in a six-goal thriller.

Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images

Hannover will play in 2. Bundesliga once again after they failed to beat Nürnberg in front of their vociferous supporters. Elversberg joined Schalke in Bundesliga, while Paderborn will now face VfL Wolfsburg in the playoff for the last spot.

As expected, Hannover started the game with urgency and clear intent, with their incredible fans cheering the team every step of the way. However, Elversberg and Paderborn taking early leads in their respective games put pressure on Christian Titz’s men.

After a couple of half-hearted penalty-kick appeals by the promotion chasers, Nürnberg stunned the hosts with a spectacular effort by Mohamed Ali Zoma in the 25th minute. The youngster scored in each of his last three games of a successful 2. Bundesliga season.

Hannover needed a win to stay alive in the promotion race, but they didn’t lose their momentum after conceding the goal. Five minutes later, Kolja Oudenne leveled the score with his powerful hit raising the noise levels at Hannover once again.

After leaving his place for Christian Mathenia in Nürnberg’s last home game of the season, Jan Reichert was in top form between the sticks. Hannover did still find the goal that put them back in third before the half-time whistle.

The lively Mustapha Bundu set up Waniss Taibi’s first goal for Hannover. The Frenchman started ahead of the club’s top-scorer Benjamin Kallman for the decisive fixture, and he responded with an assist and a goal in the first-half.

There was even a brief chance of Hannover going two goals in front before VAR intervened for Daniel Schlager’s wrong decision of a handball by Fabio Gruber. With Elversberg 2-0 up at home against bottom-placed Preußen Münster, automatic promotion was a huge mountain to climb, though.

There was more drama at the start of the second-half. Zoma netted his 14th of the season with a sublime finish seconds after the restart. Reichert denied a quick reaction from Hannover with a brilliant save from Bundu’s header, but they found their way from the resulting corner-kick.

It was counted as an own-goal by Luka Lochoshvili as Hannover were only dropped to fourth for four minutes. There were more chances at either end in a captivating game between two attacking teams.

And, in a twist of events, Lochoshvili got one at the right end with a well-placed header in the 85th minute. A third consecutive draw would see Hannover completely miss out on a promotion since Paderborn doubled their lead moments later in Darmstadt. Despite their efforts in injury-time, it was out of their grasp after they conceded yet another late goal.

Titz has now finished just outside the promotion places in successive seasons with Magdeburg and Hannover. Nürnberg finished in eighth place after scoring three goals in successive games against champions Schalke and Hannover.