Six o’clock, kick-off. Temperatures have dropped to less than bearable numbers, the rain continues to fall. No one would blame a player for failing to break sweat today. The Ostkurve is a bouncing sea of Green-White noise. Things have started well: Werder have the better of the game, are combining well, look determined. The first chances follow, as does the opening goal just before half-time, thank God: Kruse to Bartels, who chips it gently over the keeper, so gently, as though the pressure of an entire city lay elsewhere.
The crowd erupts, that’s what it’s all about; suddenly it’s a few degrees warmer inside the ground, the discussions over a half-time beer and sausage all to the tune of ‘let’s put this one to bed quickly and send Hannover back on their merry way down the A27’. However, the fans shiver, not due to the cold. Pavlenka is left one-on-one with Harnik, but the goalkeeper with the highest save percentage in the league rescues with his thigh – an entire stadium takes a collective deep breath. Werder, however, are unfazed, Werder are pumped. The team stand strong, show great build-up play and push for more against their Northern neighbours. Then it begins, the Max Kruse Show: in the space of just 23 minutes, the Germany international bags a hattrick, steals thousands of Green-White hearts from the fans, who, frankly, can’t believe their eyes in the 78th minute: the win looks in the bag. No last-minute goal like against Frankfurt, no nerves, no nail-biting, just a full quarter hour of pure euphoria.
