Sunderland slumped to their first defeat of pre-season going down 3-1 to German side Hannover 96.

Two goals in three minutes at the end of the first-half, first from Abdellaoue and then the second from Shlaudraff, gave the hosts a 2-0 lead and that really knocked the stuffing out of Sunderland.

To their credit the Lads battled brilliantly in the second-half and pulled one back through Stephane Sessegnon, but the Germans restored their two goal advantage in the closing minutes through Akdari.

About 350 of us made away into Weserberglandstadion – try spelling that after a few German beers – and when we got there we were in for a bit of a shock. The stadium we were playing in looked like a Mickey Mouse version of Gateshead stadium: a running track surrounding the pitch, grassy banks instead of terraces and it generally wasn’t all that great. Plus the weather was shit, which didn’t help matter. Still, the copious amount of chips, beer and of course, German sausages made up for that.

Anyway, Brucey decided to freshen things up from the last game and included youngster Louis Lang, to partner Anton Ferdinand at the back, while there were starts for Ahmed Elmohamady and Jack Colback.

Anyway, we lined up like this:
Mignolet
Bardsley [C] Ferdinand Liang Richardson
Elmohamady Vaughan Gardner Colback
Sessegnon
Dong-Won

With Hannover finishing fourth in the Bundesliga, Sunderland knew they faced stern opposition. And that they were. The game took a while to get going and the first twenty minutes or so were fragmented. No side could get a real foothold in the game and were often a bit wasteful in possession.

But just as the game was heading for half-time the hosts struck with two quick goals. First, Haggui played a long ball down field, Mignolet couldn’t collect it and Mohammed Abdellaoue put it away. 1-0.

With Sunderland and sixes and sevens, Hannover got another one. Mignolet could only get a glove on Jan Shlaudraff’s shot, but the ball kept on going. 2-0 Hannover. Bugger. I felt Mignolet was partly to blame for both of their goals and should’ve done better.

That was that and the ref blew for half time. Apart from the three minutes of madness, it was pretty lacklustre affair. Neither sides had the better of it and nor did they have any real chances.

We needed a quick response after the break, and we got one. The little Drogba (Sessegnon, if you haven’t been reading Bruce’s comments) doubled his tally for the tour by pouncing on a dodgy back pass, firing it past the keeper to make it 2-1.

From then on in we got the bit between our teeth and really attacked the German side. Elmo was unlucky not to score by having his header cleared off the line before Sess sent a shot wide. The gaffer then chucked on Steed, Wickham and Cattermole in search of an equaliser.

But just as we went searching for a leveller in the dying minutes, they hit us with another sucker-punch. Akdari latched onto a ball from the left and fired passed the Mig, giving the Belgian no chance. 3-1.

And it was all over, the ref blew and it was 3-1 to the hosts. A very good second half performance from the Lads, but they will be ruing those disastrous three minutes at the end of the first-half.

Final Score: 1-3

ALS Man of the Match: I’m giving it to David Vaughan: he did nothing wrong and I thought he was tidy in possession.

Chris Glancey

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