After three defeats in the Bundesliga, Borussia Mönchengladbach achieved their first win of the year and at the same time ended VfL Bochum’s upswing. The Gladbachers won the top game on Saturday evening 3-0 against the bottom of the table.
Rocco Reitz calmed Gladbach’s nerves in front of 54,000 spectators at Borussia Park with his opening goal in the 34th minute. After the break, Robin Hack (55th) increased after a nice solo run, Tim Kleindienst (86th) made everything clear with the final score of 3-0, the national player converted a penalty in the follow-up.
Gladbach “Favorite opponent” – fifth win in a row against Bochum
Borussia had previously lost all three Bundesliga games of the new year, for the first time since 2014. The “favorite opponent” from Bochum apparently came at exactly the right time, Gladbach has now won five games in a row against VfL. The team from the Lower Rhine currently cannot boast such a successful streak against any other Bundesliga club.
Gladbach’s coach Gerardo Seoane spoke at the Sportschau microphone of a “Matriculation exam“, which his team passed, after the false start to the new year. The three defeats had an impact on the team’s self-confidence and mood, said Seoane. The Swiss emphasized the stable performance in defense: “If you don’t go forward If you have flow, then above all you have to defend solidly. We did that, I’m happy about that.”
In the table, Borussia climbed to eighth place with 27 points and can move back towards international places.
The bottom of the table from Bochum, which recently celebrated two successes with the 1-0 win against St. Pauli and the 3-3 after a 3-0 deficit against RB Leipzig, had to accept another setback. The Bochum team remain at the bottom of the table with 10 points, but the game at Union Berlin, which was subsequently rated as a win for Bochum on the green table, is not yet taken into account in the table after the Berliners objected to the verdict.
Hecking’s return with Bochum to Borussia Park
Bochum’s coach Dieter Hecking, who was coach in Mönchengladbach from December 2016 to June 2019, left his old place of work “with a lot of trouble in his luggage“As he said in the Sportschau interview.”Of course, I was hoping that we would achieve a completely different performance here. The victory for Gladbach was also deserved at this level.“
Ulli Schäfer, Sportschau, January 25, 2025 9:03 p.m
Hecking made three changes to his team compared to the spectacular 3-3 draw against Leipzig. The Bochum team started confidently – and with a bit of luck they could have taken the lead early on. After a corner from the guests, Gladbach’s Tomas Cvancara only directed the ball up and not into his own goal (3rd).
As a result, Borussia took control of the game, but lacked the necessary pace on offense. And so here too, a standard situation created the first real threat to score, but Lukas Ullrich headed over from a good position (14th).
Gladbach’s Reitz scores after a corner
Afterwards, the problems in Gladbach’s attacking game continued. Promising situations were only played out sloppily, and national player Kleindienst also had a hard time against the Bochum defense line. It was only a successful standard situation that gave Gladbach the lead: after a corner, the ball landed over several stations at Reitz, whose soulful flick gave VfL keeper Patrick Drewes no chance.
Gladbach determined after the break, Bochum not dangerous
At the start of the second half, the next goal for the home team was in the air, but Kleindienst’s attempt went past the left post (47′). Shortly afterwards, the striker sent Hack on his way with a quick throw-in. The winger initially danced past several Bochum players in the penalty area before placing the ball into the goal to make it 2-0.
Hecking reacted with a triple substitution, so Myron Boadu, who had shone with a hat-trick against Leipzig, also had to go down after a weak performance (61′). Moritz Broschinski stormed in for him – but the guests still didn’t pose any real danger.
Instead, the Gladbachers pushed for the 3-0, Hack just missed his second goal (72nd). Then Drewes brought Nathan Ngoumou off his feet when he was running through, and according to the VAR images there was a penalty. Kleindienst initially failed with a ball that was too casually kicked past Bochum’s keeper, but sank the follow-up shot that made the final decision.
Gladbach in Stuttgart, Bochum against Freiburg
Gladbach has to play away at VfB Stuttgart next week (February 1, 2025, 3:30 p.m.). VfL Bochum welcomes SC Freiburg at the same time.