Hannover and Elversberg drop crucial points in race for promotion | OneFootball

There were no shots on target at either end until the final five minutes of the first-half, but the hosts didn’t need one to take the lead. The impressive Noel Aseko’s surge on the left side in the 20th minute ended with Maximilian Rohr beating his own goalkeeper, Nicolas Kristof.

Elversberg’s center-back nearly repeated the mistake before the half-time break as the hosts finished the half strongly. Kristof also had to make saves to deny Maurice Neubauer and Maik Nawrocki.

Aseko was decisive in almost every Hannover attack in the first-half, and he continued the trend by assisting Kolja Oudenne’s decent effort early after the restart. However, Kristof once again made a crucial save to keep his side in the game.

The goalkeeper was even pivotal in the goal that levelled the score. After an easy catch from Hannover’s corner-kick, his long throw reached Emmanuel Pherai, who was eventually brought down in the box by none other than Aseko.

Elversberg have a poor record from penalty-kicks this season, but Lukas Petkov converted this one for his tenth goal of the campaign. For a team in the winning position, Hannover’s decision not to have enough cover to defend a potential counterattack proved costly.  

Ironically, Hannover’s goalkeeper Nahuel Noll nearly did the same to initiate a goalscoring opportunity as Rohr came close to beating Kristof for the third time. Despite their dominant display, the hosts failed to create clear-cut opportunities by themselves.

With Schalke and Paderborn winning their respective games, both teams knew they had to grab three points to boost their chances of promotion. However, they lacked the quality to find the winning goal in the last 30 minutes.

Substitutes Husseyn Chakroun and Benjamin Källman had decent chances late in the game, but they were unable to test Kristof. The referee dished out four yellow cards in a tense and dramatic injury-time before waving away Hannover's shout for a penalty-kick.

Elversberg, who dropped points for the third successive away fixture, have now dropped down the automatic promotion place as they are back to where they finished last season. Hannover will stay in fifth with the gap to league leaders Schalke back to five points.