Hertha Berlin equalised inside the final 10 minutes to share a 1-1 draw with Hannover in the Bundesliga this evening.
The hosts were on the attack early on, with Hiroshi Kiyotake bursting down the wing before crossing it in for Salif Sane, but the midfielder could only head over.
Against the run of play, Hertha had the ball in the back of the net with 15 minutes played as John Brooks tried to head in after Ron-Robert Zieler had saved a Sebastian Langkamp header, but the finish was ruled out for offside.
Kiyotake continued to cause problems for the visitors as Hannover pressed for an opening goal before half time, but another Sane header was easily stopped by Thomas Kraft, and the Japanese winger fired wide after being set up by Jimmy Briand moments later.
Valentin Stocker tried to make the most of the miss by unleashing a swerving volley down the other end, but his finish went just high of the crossbar, ensuring that the deadlock remained at half time.
Hannover continued to look the more likely at the start of the second half as Lars Stindl hit the woodwork less than four minutes after the restart when his low drive from outside the box came back of the bottom of the post.
Chances started to dry up for both sides as the second half progressed, but a quick move from Kiyotake finally resulted in a goal for the home side.
The winger found Sane again, but as with the previous efforts, Kraft was able to keep his header out. However, this time Christian Schulz was waiting and bundled the ball over the line.
Hertha though that they should have had a penalty a few minutes later as Genki Haraguchi appeared to be pushed to the ground by Felipe, but the referee was not interested.
The visitors kept pressing though, and managed to find an equaliser inside the final 10 minutes when Stocker but the ball past Zieler with an acrobatic volley.
The point moves Hannover up to 14th in the table, four points clear of the relegation playoff spot, while Berlin stay 11th.
Sian Cowper
