The 2. Bundesliga continues – SVE are back

SVE’s 2. Bundesliga adventure began in Hanover half a year ago, and now the second half of the season continues back against Hannover 96. This is once again a worrying prospect.

The Hanover team’s preparations have been extremely promising: the Lower Saxony players won three of their four test games, including some clear victories such as 3:0 against Ajax Amsterdam and 4:0 against FC Zürich. Before the game on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Elversberg, Hanover’s coach Stefan Leitl hopes that the team can ‘manage to transfer this over into the championship’. That would also calm the club’s nerves somewhat: Hannover 96’s boss Martin Kind had some strong things to say about their period of poor performance before the winter break. The performance slump before the winter was in his view ‘completely unsatisfactory and inexplicable. You have to be honest that we squandered a lot’, he explained to Sky. According to Kind, the club’s goal needs to be to ‘send a message to the region that we can also play sustainable, consistent football’. 96 needs to ‘regain its self-confidence, spectators and the public. The only way it can do this is by winning.’ Stefan Leitl did not really understand this public criticism: ‘We need to get off to a good start and not talk so much.’

Whilst their upcoming opponents are in the thick of things, SVE Elversberg are returning with calm heads. The team is almost complete – only Marcel Correia is missing, due to his ruptured cruciate ligament. Wahid Faghir is back after a long period of injury. Their preparations ended well with a win over RB Salzburg – and the adventure continues at the weekend.