Hannover´s Andreasen admits he handled controversial winner

Leon Andreasen has admitted his winning goal in Hannover’s 1-0 Bundesliga victory at Cologne on Sunday should have been disallowed.

The Denmark international clearly used his hand to guide the ball past goalkeeper Timo Horn in the 38th minute of the match at RheinEnergieStadion, although the incident somehow escaped the attention of referee Bastian Dankert and his assistants.

Speaking after the game, Andreasen acknowledged his surprise at the decisive goal not being ruled out.

“I made a motion in the direction of the ball, it all happened very quickly,” he said. 

“You [could have blown the] whistle of course. That was clearly handball.”

The hosts were left enraged after the narrow loss, Cologne sports director Jorg Schmadtke taking aim at Dankert, while making a pointed reference to the country’s football authorities.

“It’s irritating that we had a ‘handball’ referee,” he said. 

“If 48,700 people saw it, the four match officials needed too as well.

“Give our regards to the German Football Association.”

Cologne midfielder Marcel Risse made no attempt to disguise his opinion.

“In my view, you could clearly see it was handball,” he said.

And those sentiments were echoed by Horn.

“I was expecting a clear whistle,” he said.

“An illegal goal has cost us the points.”

Hannover captain Christian Schulz, meanwhile, was at least gracious enough to acknowledge his team’s good fortune.

“There are no ifs or buts, that was a lucky win for us,” he said. 

“The bottom line is FC [Cologne] were superior.”

The result left Hannover 14th on the table, two points outside the automatic relegation place. Cologne are six points better off in sixth spot.