Dominant 5-1 win against Elversberg
Pál Dárdai had to do without Toni Leistner for Hertha’s first game of December, with Linus Gechter replacing the captain at centre-back. Derry Scherhant replaced Marten Winkler in the front three. Nader Jindaoui made the first team squad for the first time, with Tony Rölke also on the bench.
Busy opening period
The guests seemed to have taken the lead at the Olympiastadion, but Paul Wanner’s goal was ruled out by VAR for handball (4’). It was the ‘Old Lady’ who then took actually the lead, with Gechter sweeping home following a scramble in the box from a corner (12’). The lead didn’t last for long though, as Thore Jacobsen drilled home a short from the edge of the box to restore parity (15’). Less than ten minutes later, Hertha had retaken the lead, with Florian Niederlechner finding himself in the right place at the right time in the box. A cross from Gechter was cleared off the line by Frederik Jäkel, but it sat up perfectly for Hertha’s number seven, who guided the ball home to make it 2-1 (24’). The Blue-Whites carried this narrow lead into half time.
Michał Karbownik replaced Marc Kempf at half time. He played as a left-back, with Márton Dárdai dropping back to centre-back and Zeefuik slotting into midfield. Shots from Wanner (48‘), Stock (51‘, 52‘) and Feil (53’) didn’t result in anything more substantial. Dárdai reacted again, bringing on Smail Prevljak for Haris Tabaković (59’). It was not too long after this when Niederlechner doubled his tally for the night. Kenny played a clever reverse ball into Niederlechner in the box, who swivelled and managed to find a finish past Kristof in the Elversberg net – his fourth goal of the season (62’).
Niederlechner completes hattrick
Elversberg’s resistance was now broken and Niederlechner completed his hattrick in the 67th minute. Minutes later, the ball dropped kindly for Kenny on the edge of the box and he drilled the ball home via the underside of the crossbar (71’)! Bilal Hussein and Marten Winkler came on for the hattrick hero and Reese for the closing stages (73’), and Gustav Christensen replaced Scherhant (81’). The scoreline remained 5-1 until full time, giving Hertha a sixth win of the season and helping them climb up to eight in the table. The Blue-Whites now host Hamburger SV in the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday (06.12.23, 20:45 CET), before then travelling to play 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday (09.12.23, 13:00 CET).
Hertha BSC: Ernst – Kenny, Gechter, Kempf (45‘ Karbownik), Zeefuik – Klemens, M. Dárdai – Scherhant (81‘ Christensen), Reese (C) (73‘ Winkler) – Niederlechner (73‘ Hussein) – Tabaković (59‘Prevljak)
SV Elversberg: Kristof – Vandermersch (45‘ Sahin), Conrad, Jäkel, Neubauer – Fellhauer, Jacobsen – Feil (85‘ Pinckert), Wanner (85‘ Sicker), Rochelt (69‘ Boyamba) – Stock (69‘ Koffi)
Goals: 1-0 Gechter (12‘), 1-1 Jacobsen (15‘), 2-1 Niederlechner (23‘), 3-1 Niederlechner (61‘), 4-1 Niederlechner (67‘), 5-1 Kenny (71‘)
Referee: Sven Jablonski
Yellow cards: Conrad
Attendance: 30,000
Florian Niederlechner: The last time that I scored three in a game was while I was still playing at Unterhaching. It feels good, goals are simply the most important thing for a striker. If you keep working hard then you will be rewarded eventually. I’ve taken the match ball; there'll be a nice place for it at home. At the end of the day, it was a deserved win, but probably one or two goals too high. Still, we will allow ourselves to celebrate this and then it’s flat out against Hamburg in front of a full house.