Record from the VfB view-point:
Total: 54 games, 25 wins, 10 draws, 19 defeats, 92:78 goal-difference
Home: 27 games, 20 wins, 1 draws, 6 defeats, 61:30 goal-difference
Away: 27 games, 5 wins, 9 draws, 13 defeats, 31:48 goal-difference
Support
Hannes Wolf and his men are expected to have the backing of 2,000 travelling supporters in Hanover. The visitor’s ticket-booth opens at 18:30 CET and there are still plenty of tickets available in a number of categories.
Parallels
On Friday evening, the two promoted sides from the previous season go head-to-head. VfB and Hannover 96 were both relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of the 2015/2016 campaign, but were directly re-promoted a year later.
Familiar faces
For Ron-Robert Zieler, match-day 13 marks a return to his former haunting-ground. The keeper wore the Hannover 96 colours between 2010 and 2016, making a total of 185 league appearances for the club. Ron-Robert Zieler is duly prepared for a „special match“.
An old acquaintance
Martin Harnik has not been involved in a Bundesliga game involving VfB since May 2016. The attacker had previously been at VfB since 2010, where he made 173 league appearances in White-Red, before moving on to the Lower Saxony club in the summer of 2016.
Historical
During the 1985/1986 season, the Cannstatt Boys racked up an emphatic 7-0 win over Hannover 96. Along with four other 7-0 victories, the score is the highest achieved by VfB in their Bundesliga history. For Hannover, it remains their heftiest Bundesliga defeat.