Coming into this game Gladbach were dealt a blow when it was revealed that World Cup winner Christoph Kramer would miss their trip to Hannover after being diagnosed with an illness and Captain Filip Daems would also miss the game despite returning to training on Thursday.

There was some good news as well as USA’s Fabian Johnson returned to the bench after his injury spell. Hannover were hoping to win today’s game to make it 4 wins from 4 at home but they faced a Gladbach side yet to lose in the Bundesliga this season, one of only four teams left unbeaten after seven match days.

There was a slow start to today’s game with the first half chance falling to Hiroshi Kiyotake who slipped whilst shooting and the shot was blocked before going out for a corner. Christian Pander took the resulting throw-in and it made its way all the way in to the box and Jimmy Briand got his head to it but there wasn’t enough power, Yann Sommer easily saved it. Before their opening goal Gladbach’s only chance fell to André Hahn who controlled a cross-field ball well before hitting it well over on the half volley.

The goal came in the 14th minute when Gladbach overturned possession quite far up the pitch allowing a quick counter-attack before Álvaro Dominguez’s cross found Max Kruse in the middle. The German striker stooped to meet it and headed it back across goal leaving Ron-Robert Zieler in the Hannover goal with no chance. The attacking midfield duo of Leonardo Bittencourt and Kiyotake were very poor for Tayfun Korkut’s side today, between them they had 18 misplaced passes and the strikers suffered from this lack of service as they struggled to get any clear cut opportunities.

Kiyotake had Hannover’s only real chance after the goal in the 1st period following a decent run by Bittencourt who was tackled by Havard Nordtveit causing the ball to fall to the Japanese playmaker but his shot was poor and nowhere near the goal. Gladbach’s industry did create a few decent chances to double their lead in the 1st half, firstly Kruse made a great run but his cross was just over the head of Raffael and then Hahn played a lovely ball across the 18-yard box but Raffael dallied on the ball and was tackled by Bittencourt.

Towards the end of the first half Nordtveit was tackled and appeared to be struggling with an injury and as a result didn’t return in the 2nd half as he was replaced Roel Brouwers. Only 3 minutes after the restart Gladbach doubled their lead when Granit Xhaka smashed in a low costless kick from just outside the penalty area. Zieler was probably disappointed with his attempt to save it as he took a step to the left just before the kick was taken and as a result couldn’t get back across his goal to keep out Xhaka’s effort. Patrick Hermann then had a great opportunity to extend the lead even further 5 minutes later but his shot was just outside the upright.

Gladbach then created another moment of danger when a costless kick delivered to the back post was headed back across by Brouwers and at the other post from an equally tight angle Dominguez hit the crossbar. Hahn kept fading out of the game but he came back into it in the 69th minute when he was put through one-on-one by Raffael on a counter-attack, his chip sailed beautifully over the keeper but was just past his post. This was followed by a quiet 10-minute period as Gladbach tried to fall back and defend as Hannover struggled to break them down, the play was also interrupted by quite a few substitutions.

Hannover’s best chance of the game came in the 88th minute when a Kiyotake cross was headed down to Briand by Joselu and the Frenchman gave it back to the Spaniard whose shot from the edge of the area could only be palmed away by Sommer. Substitute Kenan Karaman attempted to follow up the ball but Sommer was out very quickly and smothered it at the Turkish striker’s feet. The game was finally finished off with a third Gladbach goal in the 89th minute when Zieler came out to close down Hahn at the side of his box but Hahn just passed to Kruse who lifted beautifully over the defenders into an open net.