Two early Sylla goals help S04 win 3-0 in Hannover

Unchanged team

Head coach Miron Muslic showed faith in the team that won 2-1 at Arminia Bielefeld before the international break. He only made changes to his bench, with Christian Gomis and Max Grüger both recovering from their respective injuries to take Anton Donkor and Bryan Lasme’s places among the substitutes. The pair had only been in individual training this week.

Two early goals from Sylla

It wasn’t just the starting XI that was unchanged from the recent league win in Bielefeld – the opening minutes followed a similar pattern too. Once again, Schalke came flying out of the blocks, pressing Hannover high and putting the hosts under immediate pressure. It paid off early as Adrian Gantenbein won the ball, Kenan Karaman quickly moved it on, and Moussa Sylla curled a brilliant strike into the top corner from inside the box to make it 1-0 (3’). The Royal Blues caught Hannover cold right from the off.

Just a few minutes later, the travelling Schalke fans had more reason to celebrate. Moussa Sylla’s backheel effort was deflected behind for a corner, but the resulting delivery from Christopher Antwi-Adjei was flicked on by Nikola Katic to the far post, where Sylla was waiting to nod home his second of the night (14’).

Hannover had barely been in the game, but thought they’d pulled one back moments later. Mustapha Bundu broke through and found the back of the net, only for the flag to go up for offside (15’). The hosts looked to play long balls over Schalke’s back line, but the back-three stood firm and Loris Karius was alert to every danger, rushing out to intercept a number of passes in behind, including one aimed again at Bundu (25’).

The home side began to see more of the ball and pushed higher up the pitch, though they rarely found a way through. Their first real chance came after 32 minutes, when Bundu pounced on a loose ball in the box, but Karius was out quickly to smother. Soon after, Hannover had the ball in the net again, but once more it was ruled out for offside. Benjamin Källman had strayed just beyond the last defender before slotting home from 12 yards (34’).

The hosts went close again before the break when Waniss Taibi released Rochelt down the left, whose low cross was blasted clear by Vitalie Becker. Then in added time, Schalke almost grabbed a third: Adrian Gantenbein met a cross first time, but his strike flashed just wide of the post (45’+3).

Penalty overturned, phantom goal and Gomis seals it

The second half began with immediate drama. Just seconds after the restart, Vitalie Becker was struck on the arm by a cross into the box and referee Martin Petersen pointed to the spot for handball (46’). However, after reviewing the footage, he determined that the Schalke defender had not made himself unnaturally bigger and reversed his decision. The incident was further delayed by technical problems with the referees’ communication system, meaning play didn’t resume for almost five minutes.

Despite the reprieve, Hannover came out with renewed energy and pushed hard to find a way back into the game. Efforts from Benjamin Källman and Hayate Matsuda were both blocked by Schalke defenders (56’), as was Enzo Leopold’s attempt two minutes later (58’). The Royal Blues looked to relieve the pressure and managed to carry the ball forward on a few occasions.

The next bizarre moment soon followed when Mustapha Bundu drove into the box and appeared to have pulled one back, striking the ball past Loris Karius and into the net. The home crowd erupted and goal music blared, but the ball had in fact struck the stanchion behind the post and rebounded into the side netting (63’). This close call seemed to spark Schalke back into life. Kenan Karaman sent a header just wide after a cross from the right (66’), and a minute later, Moussa Sylla was inches away from getting to a through ball in a dangerous position (67’).

With a quarter of an hour remaining, Hannover head coach Christian Titz made a triple substitution in search of a response, while Miron Muslic sent on Janik Bachmann and Christian Gomis for Sylla and Christopher Antwi-Adjei (76’). Just before that, Boris Tomiak had a big chance from a corner, but his first-time shot skewed wide after a deflection (75’).

Schalke then began to threaten again on the break. Vitalie Becker burst down the left, only to see his shot blocked at the last second (82’). Mertcan Ayhan’s volley was also turned behind for another corner (83’). From the next delivery, Bachmann flicked the ball on and Gomis pounced – denied twice by goalkeeper Nahuel Noll and defender Hendry Blank in quick succession, but he couldn’t be stopped from the following corner, turning in Ron Schallenberg’s header at the back post to make it 3-0 (85’).

Hannover threw everything forward in the closing stages and ten minutes of added time, but Schalke’s defence stood firm. Nikola Katic, Hasan Kuruçay and Loris Karius dealt confidently with every attack to see out the clean sheet and a commanding victory.

Back-to-back games against Darmstadt

Schalke’s next game is in exactly a week against SV Darmstadt 98 at the VELTINS-Arena (24/10, 18:30 CEST). The Lilies went into matchday 9 in third place and host 1. FC Magdeburg, who are currently bottom of the table, on Sunday. The Royal Blues will then travel to play Darmstadt again just five days later in the second round of the DFB-Pokal. That game is scheduled for 20:45 CEST on Wednesday (29/10).