VfL Bochum’s U19 team continues its winning streak. In the second round of the DFB Cup, the VfL youth team defeated Hannover 96 4-2 (1-1).

VfL Bochum’s U19 team is among the last 16 teams in the DFB Junior Cup. Against Hannover 96, the second-round match at Hiltroper Straße was very evenly matched for a long time, before VfL finally won 4-2 (1-1) and deservedly advanced to the round of 16.

“A difficult game,” was how Bochum’s interim coach Simon Schuchert succinctly summed up the encounter. The local club took the lead through Amos Gerth (8th minute), but conceded the equalizer shortly afterwards (21st minute). Shortly after the break, the Lower Saxony side even turned the game around with a goal from Julius Meusel (55th minute).

Schuchert: “Despite taking an early lead and having a really good start, we let the game slip away. We weren’t as sharp anymore, Hannover had more possession and created chances. After 25 minutes, we lost our rhythm a bit, conceded the 1-1 and didn’t come out of the break as well as we had hoped.”

The 34-year-old cited the tough schedule as the reason for his team’s slump – it was the fourth game in twelve days for the VfL youngsters. “We lacked a bit of freshness,” Schuchert noted. However, after going 1-2 down, his team found their way back into the game. In the 61st minute, Alessandro Crimaldi, whom Schuchert described as having played an ‘outstanding’ game, equalized “out of nowhere” to make it 2-2.

“From the 70th minute onwards, we got into the game the way we wanted to. We became more aggressive, got our second, third, fourth and fifth wind and were able to really throw ourselves into the challenges. That’s how the game swung in our direction,“ said the VfL coach, who also praised his substitutes Desmond Jayden Fischer and Elhan Kovacevic for their ”energy.”

In the final stages, Crimaldi put VfL on the road to victory with his second goal (82′). Daryl Tschoumy Nana nodded in to make it 4-2 shortly before the final whistle (90+3).

Schuchert summed up: “In the end, we deserved to win, even if it was really hard work.” It is not yet clear which club VfL Bochum will face in the round of 16. with gp