Hiroshi Kiyotake scored one goal and set up another as Hannover 96 beat Hertha BSC 2-0 away to move into provisional fourth in the Bundesliga on Friday. Kiyotake provided the corner for Jimmy Briand to open the scoring in the 44th minute and the Japan midfielder sealed the win by cutting inside a Hertha defender and finishing coolly in the 76th minute.
It was Kiyotake’s second league goal for Hannover since he switched in the summer from relegated Nuremberg. He thought he had scored earlier, only for the effort to be ruled out for offside after some good interplay with Leonardo Bittencourt.
“We made it clear from the first second that we’re the better team,” Hannover general manager Dirk Dufner said. “That was the key to the win.”
Photo: EPA
The victory moves Hannover five points behind Bayern Munich before the rest of the 11th round of games, while Hertha missed the chance to establish themselves in the middle of the table after their second successive loss.
The home side came closest to scoring though Genki Haraguchi and Saloman Kalou in the first half.
“We’re trying to do everything right, but it’s simply not working,” said Hertha defender Per Ciljan Skjelbred, who was caught out for the second goal.
Poor marking allowed Briand to score before the break, and Bittencourt took advantage of some more lax defending with a cross-field ball for Kiyotake to seal the victory.
Nearly 40,000 supporters attended the game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion despite a strike causing disruption to rail services across the country.
LA LIGA
AP, CORDOBA, Spain
Cordoba squandered a great chance to finally end their 42-year wait for their first win in Spain’s first division when they were held 0-0 at home by 10-man RC Deportivo de La Coruna on Friday.
Cordoba, who returned to the top flight for the first time since 1972 last season, remained in last place and the only winless team in the Spanish league through 11 rounds.
Forward Federico Cartabia wasted Cordoba’s best scoring opportunity in the 16th minute, when his penalty was saved by goalkeeper Fabricio Agosto after Helder Postiga pulled down Daniel Pinillos in the area.
That foul earned Postiga his first booking, and the Portugal striker received a second yellow card in the 29th after trading shoves with Cordoba’s Inigo Lopez.
Cordoba kept the ball in Deportivo’s half for most of the remaining hour, but barely forced Fabricio into action, drawing jeers from the Estadio Nuevo Arcangel crowd in the final minutes.
“We have to keep working,” Pinillos said. “It’s true that if we had scored the penalty, it would have changed the match, but they knew how to fall back. It wasn’t meant to be.”
Cordoba have not improved under new coach Miroslav Djukic, with two draws and one loss since the former Valencia manager replaced Albert Ferrer.
Deportivo edged into 15th place, one point above the relegation zone.
LIGUE 1
AP, PARIS
Brazilian striker Pedro Henrique scored an 89th-minute winner as Stade Rennais beat struggling Lorient 1-0 at home on Friday, extending their unbeaten run to six games and moving provisionally up to seventh place in the French league.
Winger Paul-Georges Ntep has been arguably Rennes’ best player this season and made the difference once more.
Collecting a pass on the left wing, he burst forward before skipping past defender Yoann Wachter and crossing to the back post, where Henrique rifled home his second league goal of the season.
The win moved Rennes to 19 points from 13 games, one point ahead of AS Monaco and Metz, who both have a game in hand.
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