Hannover beat ten-man Standard to make history

Hannover 96 reached the quarter-finals of European competition for the first time in their history with a 4-0 second-leg victory against ten-man R. Standard de Liège. Mohammed Abdellaoue pounced to give the German side an early lead, before Standard defender Kanu suffered the misfortune of scoring own goals in either half to all but end the tie. Serge Gakpe's second-half red card made a bad night worse for the Belgians, who conceded again late on as Sergio Pinto struck to send Die Roten through 6-2 on aggregate. Trailing on away goals after drawing the first leg 2-2, Standard arrived in Germany needing to score but soon found themselves behind at the Hannover Arena. Just four minutes had elapsed when Sinan Bolat parried a fierce low cross from Jan Schlaudraff straight to Abdellaoue, who made no mistake from close range. Lars Stindl and Konstantin Rausch were a constant menace on the flanks and each had already delivered a number of inviting crosses by the time the hosts doubled their lead on 21 minutes. Pinto was the creator this time, blasting across goal to cause Kanu to unwittingly put through his own net. The defender almost redeemed himself moments later, but slipped with the goal at his mercy after Jelle van Damme's header had come back off a post. Mirko Slomka's side were able to subdue the game, though Gakpe and Gohi Bi Cyriac fired narrowly over. Unsatisfied, Standard boss José Riga sent out his charges early for the second half and for a period they were first to every ball too. Cyriac forced Ron-Robert Zieler to beat away his volley, but the Belgians' night took a turn for the worse on 58 minutes as Gakpe was dismissed for a second bookable offence. Hannover made the most of their numerical advantage in the closing stages as Kanu again diverted into his own net from Dider Konan Ya's poke, before Pinto scored from a tight angle to round off Hannover's biggest ever win in UEFA club competition late on.