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Louis Schaub (r.) and Hannover 96 had a difficult time against Osnabrück with Florian Kleinhansl

Photo: Friso Gentsch/dpa

Hannover 96 surprisingly lost 0-1 (0-0) against bottom-placed VfL Osnabrück on matchday 23 of the 2nd Bundesliga and thus missed out on jumping to third place, at least temporarily.

Hertha BSC also dropped points and, after two wins in a row, only played 1:1 (0:1) against Eintracht Braunschweig.

In coach Friedhelm Funkel's home debut, 1. FC Kaiserslautern experienced a 0-4 debacle against Karlsruher SC, meaning Lautern is still in acute danger of relegation.

The second leg between VfL Osnabrück and Hannover 96 had little to do with Hannover's 7-0 win in the first series: many mistakes in the build-up to the game, many duels in midfield and few chances characterized the game.

Only after the break did 96 increase the pressure, but Håvard Nielsen (48th minute) with a headed header and Louis Schaub (52nd) missed good chances.

Osnabrück punished, Erik Engelhardt took advantage of the disorder after a corner to make it 1-0 (61st).

Hannover then dominated the game, but were unable to score from the amount of possession they had.

For Osnabrück it is the first success in 155 days, but even after their second win of the season, VfL remains in last place in the table and is seven points behind the relegation place.

Hannover initially remains in fourth place, but can still be overtaken by Greuther Fürth on Sunday.

Last week, Hertha BSC Berlin announced the early extension of the contract with top performer Fabian Reese, but even he could do little to change the Berlin team's weak performance in the first half against Eintracht Braunschweig.

Braunschweig was the more dangerous team through set-pieces and counterattacks, but a bad pass from Hertha's defender Andreas Bouchalakis helped them take a 1-0 lead, and Fabio Kaufmann took advantage of this (14').

After the break, Hertha became more offensive and equalized 1-1 after just seven minutes: After an assist from Reese, Ibrahim Maza shot the ball into the right corner (52nd).

After that, the Berliners struggled to make it 2-1, and despite Hertha's superiority, the result didn't change from the 77th minute onwards after a red card for Braunschweig's Hasan Kuruçay.

Hertha remains five points behind third place, Braunschweig extends its lead over relegation place 16 to two points.

The game between 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Karlsruher SC initially offered hardly any highlights: the game was primarily characterized by intensive duels, and there were few dangerous goal scenes.

The first conclusion of the game came in the 14th minute: Igor Matanović brought the ball towards the goal after a flat cross, but was unable to get any pressure behind the ball as it fell.

It wasn't until the second half that the game picked up speed: five minutes after the restart, Karlsruhe took the lead through Marvin Wanitzek (51'), just seven minutes later Matanović was able to push the ball over the line from close range and make it 2-0.

Funkel responded with a triple substitution (62'), but Aaron Opoku, Dickson Abiama and Julian Niehues could no longer prevent the defeat.

Instead, Paul Nebel made it 3-0 (82'), Marco Thiede sealed the 4-0 defeat (90' +1) from Lautern's point of view with his header.

Kaiserslautern will initially remain in relegation place 16, but Hansa Rostock can overtake the team on Sunday.

Karlsruhe is currently in ninth place.

ast/lam