Remove click function, but keep hover intact

Question

Since my last question was marked as a duplicate, while it was no duplicate, and no-one is changing it back, I will just ask my question again.

I have an <a>, which has, by default, a on-click function. This <a> also has a hover, which I would like to keep.

How do I disable the click function, but keep the hover?

P.s., I would love to see a CSS solution!

Important! Last time, my question was marked as a duplicate of this question: How to disable a link using only CSS?, but pointer-events:none; is also blocking the hover.

If it is still a duplicate, please mark it as a duplicate of a question that is truly a duplicate.

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Edit: I forgot to mention, that my hover is made like this: https://jsfiddle.net/7o3dbak7/7/

HTML:

<div class="container">
  <ul>
    <li id="item1"><a href="somelinkthatistherebecauseitis">hoverable object</a></li>
    <li id="item2">text object, here comes alot of text explaining certain features of the website.</li>
  </ul>
</div>

CSS:

.container ul #item2 {
  display: none;
  width: 150px;
  padding: 20px;
  background: red;
  color: white;
  cursor: pointer
}

.container ul #item1 {
  pointer-events: none;
}

.container ul #item1:hover + #item2 {
  display: block;
}

Answer 1

Add pointer-events: none to the a element, then apply the hover to the parent element, targeting the a specifically within that:

span a {
  pointer-events:none;
}

span:hover a {
  color: red;
}

<span><a href="#">Hello, world!</a></span>