Jonathas marked his Hannover 96 debut with a goal as they went level on points at the top of the Bundesliga with this 1-0 win over Schalke 04.
After an impressive win last weekend, Schalke were lacklustre here, with the Brazilian’s goal, minutes after coming from the bench, the least the hosts deserved for their performance in this match.
Hannover have the better of low key half
Both teams had won their opening matches, with Schalke beating RB Leipzig and Hannover winning at 1. FSV Mainz 05. The Royal Blues were unchanged for this game, but Hannover brought in Salif Sané and Marvin Bakalorz for Florian Hübner and Kenan Karaman.
It was a tentative start, and although Schalke were the first to try and turn the screw, it was the hosts who had the first real chance. Pirmin Schwegler perfectly placed a free-kick into the box, with Sané getting his head on it to turn it towards goal. Ralf Fährmann, as he so often does, pulled out a top draw save.
One of Schalke’s new faces, Amine Harit, presented them with their first good chance, however both Franco Di Santo and Daniel Caligiuri completely missed their attempts to shoot. Otherwise a number of set pieces went to waste, whilst Hannover were making most of the attacking plays.
Niclas Füllkrug wasted a good break with a ball forward to no-one, and Felix Klaus didn’t test Fährmann with a wild strike – with options available for a pass – however the keeper did have to save from Bakalorz after good play from Martin Harnik and Klaus. Matthias Ostrzolek then had a cross blocked and although Hannover kept the ball, Waldemar Anton eventually put it wide.
Jonathas the hero from the bench
Sané had a lucky escape early in the second half, after Bastian Oczipka’s crossed appeared to hit his arm in his own box. The video assistant took a look at the incident, yet despite clear contact a penalty wasn’t given, the judgement seemingly a case of ball-to-arm, even if his arm was up.
Klaus went on to have a superb opportunity to finally break the deadlock in the game for Hannover. He was unmarked as Bakalorz’s cross came into him, however all he was able to do was fire it over, and goalless it remained.
Schalke had brought on Guido Burgstaller to try to change that for themselves, but they struggled to break down Hannover’s defence. Leon Goretzka and Yevhen Konoplyanka combined well for one chance, have the former’s shot was taken by Philipp Tschauner.
Hannover then played their joker, bringing on new signing Jonathas for his debut. He got involved quickly, and wouldn’t have to wait long for his first goal. It was a gift from Thilo Kehrer though, whose ill thought-out pass to Naldo was intercepted by Bakalorz. He crossed to Jonathas, who added Germany to the list of countries he’s scored in.
Schalke, perhaps boosted a little by the introduction of Max Meyer, were lively as they went about finding an equaliser. Konoplyanka went wide after getting the ball from Oczipka, whilst Tschauner beat Burgstaler to a Caligiuri cross. It just wasn’t their day, with even five minutes of stoppage time not enough for them to fashion a chance good enough to earn a point.