week 25 - match report

Neuer secures point in Hannover

After two home defeats in a row Schalke added to their points total again on Saturday, drawing 1-1 at Hannover 96 in front of a sell-out 49,000 crowd at the AWD Arena. Halil Altintop gave the Royal Blues a second-minute lead, only for Michael Tarnat to level the scores 120 seconds later. Mirko Slomka's men have now amassed 50 points and remain on top of the table.

"It was a fair result", said Slomka after the match. "We had a slight advantage in the first half, but we also had some luck in the closing stages." The Schalke boss was therefore content to settle for a point. "Though it hasn't seen us pull away from the chasing pack, we're still top of the league and can look forward with confidence to the matches ahead."

Slomka made two changes to the team that faced Bayer Leverkusen at home last week. Sebastian Boenisch came in at left-back for the suspended Dario Rodriguez, while Mesut Özil replaced Hamit Altintop.

And it was Özil who provided the first highlight of the game in the second minute. The young Turk's free-kick found Halil Altintop, who poked the ball into the net to give his side the lead. Yet the thousands of travelling Schalke fans had hardly stopped celebrating when the Royal Blues were pegged back. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was impeded from a corner, but the referee waved play on, and Hannover's Michael Tarnat bundled the ball home for the equaliser.

After this explosive start it was Schalke who assumed the initiative. Following Slomka's instructions to the letter, the Royal Blues showed plenty of aggression in the tackle and thus enjoyed the majority of the possession. Until the final third their football was very neat, but then they either lacked a cutting edge or Hannover keeper Robert Enke intervened to cut out any danger.

For their part, the home side put on a very defensive display in the opening 45 minutes. Operating with just one out-and-out striker, Gunnar Thorvaldsson, the Reds were content to sit back and wait. It was a very different approach to the one adopted by Schalke, who took the game by the scruff of the neck and can consider themselves very unlucky with some of the decisions by the officials. Neuer was twice clearly impeded in the run-up to the equaliser. And when Boenisch fed Halil Altintop three minutes before the interval, the Turkey striker was not offside and would have been clean through on goal. A similar situation had already occurred in the 21st minute, when Kevin Kuranyi was also wrongly adjudged to be offside.

In the second half the Royal Blues turned the tables on the home side and invited Hannover to attack them. Halil Altintop and Mesut Özil operated largely from deeper positions in midfield, yet the opportunities to counterattack this strategy was supposed to create failed to materialise. Schalke's only serious threat came on 63 when Kevin Kuranyi narrowly failed to connect with Özil's free-kick at the back post. At the other end Neuer was called into action on three separate occasions. "We certainly had a bit of luck, but we've earned it in training this week", said Slomka.

Hannover: Enke - Cherundolo, Fahrenhorst, Vinicius, Tarnat - Lala, Balitsch - Rosenthal (Bruggink 90'), Yankov (Schröter 46'), Huszti - Thorvaldsson (Stajner 71')

Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon, Krstajic, Boenisch - Bajramovic (Hamit Altintop 75'), Ernst, Kobiashvili - Halil Altintop, Kuranyi (Larsen 81'), Özil

Goals: 0-1 Halil Altintop (2'), 1-1 Tarnat (4')

Referee: Kircher (Rottenburg)

Yellow cards: Lala - Ernst, Kuranyi

Attendance: 49,000