There is a green carpet in the industrial area of Bielefeld: short, dense grass – an expensive hybrid space. On Saturday, Hannover 96 was tested against Bundesliga club Armenia Bielefeld at the training ground at Friedrich Haagemann Strasse. A high-level test, Jan Zimmermann’s team allowed the ball to run on a whisper meadow, at least in the first half, as never before at this preparatory stage.
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Division Two had a lot more structure in the game, Bielefeld only became dangerous with long balls and after losing 96 balls. “A stupid loss of the ball,” the New ’96 coach criticized from time to time because the players were given too much of them.
Pictures from the test match between Armenia Bielefeld and Hannover 96
New Captain Marcel Franck (left) welcomes his Bielefeld counterpart Fabian Clos.
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The 96 defenders fared better. New captain Marcel Franck and fellow board member Simone Vallett kept scorer Fabian Kloss in check and crafted the game according to Zimmermann’s style: organized, calm and mostly assertive.
Brunner almost had an own goal
After the break, the picture changed because Frank was out of the game. Replaced by pasdas, loopholes appeared immediately which Gani Serra used to score the winning goal for Bielefeld (48th place). 96 has changed almost completely – the game has also changed direction.
But the first half set 96. After a nice attack on Sebastian Ernst, Marvin Doksch tested the best Bielefeld goalkeeper Stefan Ortega (2). Vialet had the next chance after a corner kick from Sebastian Kirk (14).
96 Bielefeld put in his own net, out of desperation, Cedric Brunner passed from the midfield to Ortega – almost an own goal (24). Shortly before the end of the match, Maina’s goal was walking to his feet, but the ball jumped too far (88th place).
During the break, Zimmermann has changed nine players on and off after eight units in the past six days. Five of the newcomers alone came from their own NLZ, in terms of body length 96 it was clearly inferior.
This was especially evident when left-back Jan-Erik Eichhorn (1.62m) had to duel against Brian Lasme (1.96m) of Bielefeld. But Hanover’s talent resisted well, he only made one foul on the back pass, but Lasmi failed because of Marlon Sondermann (85.), who was also substituted in the meantime.
Bielefeld, now with new striker Serra (96 former youth), initially benefited from several changes, but the guests recovered – especially after a break from Linton Main. The winger started several first-class individual hits on the left, and in the 67th minute almost equalized after a combination of Maina with Philippe Auch. But it is no longer sufficient to compensate.