- Hanover fears a "catastrophic" square
Hannover 96 coach Stefan Leitl is concerned about the state of the pitch at his team's home arena ahead of their 2nd Bundesliga season opener. "The pitch is currently in a disastrous condition," said the 46-year-old ahead of Saturday's (13:00 CET/Sky) match against promoted side Jahn Regensburg.
Following an American Football game last weekend, the pitch is not only visually but also in terms of playability in very poor condition. "We finally managed to start the season with a good pitch, and now it's completely destroyed in just one week," said Leitl. He also criticized his own club: "It's more than incomprehensible that we allowed this to happen." Especially since another Football game is scheduled to take place in the arena just five days before the North Derby against Hamburger SV on August 23.
Lower Saxony will face an promoted team for the third consecutive season on the opening day. So far, 96 has not managed to win such a game. They started the 2022/23 season with a 1:2 defeat against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and last season they drew 2:2 at home against SV Elversberg.
Regensburg will be a "tough challenge"
Stefan Leitl expects Regensburg to come with a lot of promotion euphoria. "They press high and play intensively against the ball. That will be a tough challenge," said the 96 coach. Currently, Hannover has no personnel problems. Leitl: "Everyone is fit, everyone is healthy."
The disheartening state of the pitch has stirred up some fear in Coach Leitl, as the poor condition might impact Hannover 96's performance during the match against Jahn Regensburg. The pitch's sudden deterioration after just one week has left Leitl baffled and frustrated, as he expressed it to be incomprehensible how such a state was allowed to occur.
