Borussia Mönchengladbach is still waiting for its first away win in the current Bundesliga season. Even at VfL Wolfsburg, the Rhinelanders did not get beyond a 2: 2 (1: 1) and missed an improvement in their table situation. But even the hosts couldn’t be satisfied with this result on the 51st birthday of their coach Niko Kovac.
Marcus Thuram would have loved to have heard that one whistle. The Borussia Mönchengladbach striker had already scored two goals, the score was 2-2 (1-1) at VfL Wolfsburg – the Frenchman was hit in the thigh by Maximilian Arnold in the penalty area. Thuram fell and lay down for a long time, but there was no penalty in the 82nd minute. It remained with the season goals number six and seven (13./47.).
“Thuram is a world-class striker, he really has world-class format,” said Wolfsburg’s sporting director Marcel Schäfer appreciatively. “You have to reduce its effect to a minimum, but unfortunately we didn’t manage that.”
Schäfer didn’t want to rate the penalty scene too much, but he accused Thuram of a “swallow” that led to the previous free kick: “Great respect for him, but he let himself go,” he said on Sky.
Schäfer: “We’re on the right track”
So Borussia is still waiting for their first away win of the season. But even the hosts couldn’t be satisfied with this result on the 51st birthday of their coach Niko Kovac – but they were with the way they played. “You could see that we’re on the right track,” emphasized Schäfer. “We were behind twice, came back twice and had a lot more chances.”
Yannick Gerhardt scored for the hosts just before half-time (43′), substitute Omar Marmoush equalized again (69′).
Two weeks after the 5-1 debacle at Wolfsburg’s northern rivals Werder Bremen, coach Daniel Farke’s team went into the match with extreme concentration right from the start. And the very first opportunity to score was tantamount to a deserved lead at that point in time. The North Germans acted erratically, rarely got into duels and needed more than 20 minutes to get back on their feet.
After that, however, the game turned. Borussia now revealed problems in marking and were lucky that Jakub Kaminski did not equalize in the 37th minute, the Pole only hit the left outer post from close range.
Visibly annoyed, Farke unequivocally asked his protégés to hurry into the dressing room immediately after the half-time whistle. The speech seemed to take longer because his team was slightly late for the restart.
But it was wide awake as it took just two minutes for the second goal to be scored. And this goal brought the “foals” back on the pitch in front of 26,701 spectators. The hosts reacted hectically to the renewed deficit and did not pose a threat to the West Germans at this point.
However, the 2-2 score changed the situation. Now Gladbach allowed himself to be pushed more and more onto the defensive and had to survive several tricky situations.
VfL Wolfsburg – Borussia Mönchengladbach: The data for the game
Wolfsburg: Casteels – Baku, Lacroix (89 Guilavogui), van de Ven, Paulo Otavio – Arnold – Svanberg (59 Nmecha), Gerhardt – Wimmer (73 Paredes), Kaminski (89 Wind) – Nmecha (59 Marmoush). – Coach: Kovac
