Hannover 96 1 : 0 Koln - Joselu winner sends Hannover third

Posted Thursday, September 25, 2014 by PA

Hannover moved up to third in the Bundesliga thanks to a 1-0 win over Cologne, who had not conceded a goal all season until Wednesday night.

Joselu grabbed the only goal of the game just six minutes in to earn the Reds their third win of the season.

Cologne threw everything forward in the second half, but found a well-disciplined Hannover rearguard unwilling to let their points slip at the Niedersachsenstadion.

After 364 minutes without conceding, Timo Horn had to fish the ball out of the back of his net for the first time when Joselu put Hannover in front.

Jimmy Briand, making his starting debut for Hannover, saw his effort blocked, but the ball fell for Joselu to beat Horn on the turn.

Yuya Osako could have replied immediately for the visitors, but his effort was saved by Ron Robert Zieler, who enjoyed a relatively quiet first half - the calm before the storm.

Cologne soon made it clear in the second half that they were not going to just sit back and be beaten, but Hannover were equally unwilling to lose their grasp on the points.

The hosts even had a few chances to wrap up victory on the counter-attack, but it was one-way traffic towards their goal which only a resilient defensive performance and a succession of saves from Zieler could quell.

Simon Zoller and Anthony Ujah went the closest, but Hannover rarely looked in serious danger of conceding as they moved into the top three.