Hannover 96: Stefan Leitl’s confidence after the endurance test
Unbeaten, but still just short of winning the tournament – at the Volkswagen Cup in Osnabrück, 96 presented itself properly at the end of the training camp week.
Gave quick instructions to his team in Osnabrück: Stefan Leitl.
IMAGO/Jan Hübner
It was a real endurance test after an intensive week in the training camp in Rotenburg/Wümme – from the point of view of coach Stefan Leitl, he succeeded, even though Hannover 96 won the lightning tournament for the Volkswagen after two 1-1 draws against Bundesliga side Wolfsburg and hosts Osnabrück -Cup just missed out on Saturday afternoon. “Very game-determining, with good positional play and many chances to score” his team initially acted against Wolfsburg.
A win was already possible here, Leitl would have wanted it for “collegial” reasons: “I spoke to Niko Kovac on the sidelines. I’m happy that he’s back because he’s a Bundesliga child. But I I would have liked to hit him too…”
Ondoua’s decent performance
It was more important but more likely for the 96 coach that the contours of his eleven in the game against Wolfsburg were consolidated. New signing Phil Neumann and Julian Börner defended centrally in front of keeper Ron-Robert Zieler, while Jannik Dehm (right) and Derrick Köhn (left) justified the trust on the flanks of the back four. In the absence of Fabian Kunze (blister on his foot), Gael Ondoua also did a good job as a six and is not necessarily a candidate for sale in this condition. The new buyers Louis Schaub and Max Besuschkov showed good approaches on the sides of the diamonds, centrally behind the leaders Cedric Teuchert and goal scorer Hendrik Weydandt showed the imaginative Sebastian Kerk that he wants to defend his place in the duel with the ex-Fuerthian Havard Nielsen.
The latter also showed good approaches in the game against Osnabrück in the third division (here Nicolo Tresoldi and Maximilian Beier). “Here, too, we had good opportunities to take the lead, played great pressing and had a good intensity in the game,” Leitl. Activity and stability were of course lost a bit due to the demands of the past few days, ball losses crept in, so that later it was “only” enough for Beier’s worth seeing equalizer.
Overall, however, Leitl liked the game of the second division team. The 44-year-old is happy: “Change of rhythm between calm possession of the ball and then going into the last third with a lot of power – that was all there. If we had been fresher we would have drawn both games. We’re in the flow, even if it’s natural to keep working on ourselves in all areas.”
So they remain unbeaten in the pre-season friendly and are optimistic about the dress rehearsal next Saturday (2 p.m.) against the Dutch first division club FC Groningen before the league opener in Kaiserslautern.