Hannover flying high

Hannover director Joerg Schmadtke hailed his side’s ‘exceptional’ start to the Bundesliga season following Friday’s 2-1 win over Stuttgart.

The victory, Hannover’s fifth in a row, saw the Lower Saxony club better last season’s nine-win tally and rise to second on the table behind Borussia Dortmund.

Ivorian striker Didier Ya Konan scored in either half for the hosts, who will enter the mid-season break after a trip to Nuremberg one week from Saturday.

“It is exceptional what we have achieved in the first half of the season,” Schmadtke, Hannover’s technical director, said.

“We are very stable as a team and as we showed today we can always deliver more.”

Coach Mirko Slomka was full of praise for his charges, who have rebounded superbly from back-to-back 4-0 losses at the hands of Hoffenheim and Borussia Dortmund last month.

“There’s a certain ease and calm within the team,” Slomka said.

“To be able to turn the game after the equaliser was very good. The team believes in itself, it is tied together and not affected by anything from the outside.”

For Stuttgart, their 10th loss of the season leaves the 2006/07 champions flirting with the relegation zone and heaps further pressure on under-fire coach Jens Keller.

“I am deeply disappointed by the team, especially in the first half,” Keller said.

“If we play like we played today there is no need to look higher up the table. We have to stop thinking we are better than our place in the standings.”

“As for my position, this is not something I think about. I believe I am doing a good job but I cannot influence other things.”

Stuttgart have now gone five league games without a win, and Brazilian-born Germany international Cacau said he and his team-mates shoulder the blame.

“It’s our own fault,” Cacau said.

“It’s the same problem. When we lose this kind of game and go into a game in this manner, that can’t happen.”

“We have to apologize to everyone, the fans, the club. The attitude has to change. It has to improve. It has to change in every player.”

Stuttgart captain Matthieu Delpierre concurred, saying: “It is more critical than it has ever been. There’s a lot to do, we are not at the physical level necessary.”