Borussia Mönchengladbach remains without a win in the 14th Bundesliga game in a row. At Union Berlin the attitude was right, but not much more than that.
Borussia Mönchengladbach remains winless after a 1:3 (1:2) defeat at Union Berlin and slides to the bottom of the Bundesliga table. Defender Danilho Doekhi (3rd, 26th) scored Berlin’s goals on Friday, Haris Tabakovic (33rd) scored Gladbach’s goal. Union captain Rani Khedira (82nd) made the decision.
Across all seasons, Borussia has been waiting for a win for 14 league games – and now the home game against leaders Bayern Munich follows next Saturday (3:30 p.m.). Interim coach Eugen Polanski also failed to turn things around after Gerardo Seoane was fired and only got two points from four games.
Polanski’s anger about the initial phase
“We weren’t really in the game in the first 15 minutes, even though we knew what was coming,” said Polanski in the Sportschau interview. “Intensity, high balls, standard situations – we do extremely poorly there. That’s what annoys me today. We do everything else relatively well.”
Regarding the chances of being able to continue to coach, Polanski said: “I have a job to do, which I try to do with 100 percent passion and also emotions and all clarity. I think we’ve basically succeeded in doing that. But we have to score points, otherwise it won’t be of any use.”
Schröder: “Conviction is fundamentally there”
The new sports director Rouven Schröder had Polanski’s back before the game and said afterwards on the ARD sports show about the coaching question: “The conviction is basically there. Now we’re starting the week where we interact with each other every day. You get a better basic feeling: the training – how is it implemented? How do the players respond to it?”
Of course, the team also has to score points, said Schröder. “We’re not naïve, but we’re still clear: Eugen is our coach.”
Baumgart is happy about Union’s offensive game
After their third win of the season, Union is in midfield and, with ten points, already has seven points more than Gladbach. “I was happy that we played better going forward,” Coach Steffen Baumgart told the sports show. “And of course we scored the goals at the right time.”
Ansah duped three Gladbachers
The game got off to a furious start: In the second minute, Union’s Derrick Köhn was very close to taking the lead, but Gladbach’s goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas saved with a bit of luck. He was powerless at the subsequent corner from Christopher Trimmel, Doekhi headed it into the top left corner from five meters.
The game then calmed down until Union’s Ilyas Ansah got going. With a dynamic start, he simply left Gladbach’s Florian Neuhaus, Joe Scally and Nico Elvedi standing in a tight space and shot from a tight angle onto the right post. From there the ball bounced back into the middle, where Doekhi slotted it into the net.
“Scoring two goals as a defender doesn’t happen very often,” the Dutchman told the sports show. “I’m glad I was able to help the team.”
Mönchengladbach Offensive with signs of life
The Gladbachers continued to have problems with Ansah’s dynamics, and Elvedi couldn’t keep up in another scene. Otherwise, the guests put in a decent performance and were rewarded after half an hour. At the end of a counterattack, Yannik Engelhardt put the ball through to Tabakovic, who hit the ball precisely into the right corner.
The goal – it was only Gladbach’s fifth in the seventh game of the season and the first in a first half – gave Borussia additional self-confidence, and the guests were subsequently the more active team. The offensive was once again severely weakened, with long-term injuries Robin Hack, Nathan Ngoumou and Tim Kleindienst also missing Shuto Machino due to illness. Franck Honorat and Giovanni Reyna were at least back in the squad after muscular problems.
Polanski with Quadruple change
After the first quarter of an hour after the break had passed without any events, Polanski brought in Honorat and Reyna – and also Kevin Stöger and Lukas Ullrich. The quadruple substitution did not bring any additional momentum, even though Tabakovic had a good opportunity eight minutes later. His shot from close range went just over the goal.
There was no final offensive by Borussia; Khedira scored instead. A blocked corner ball sank steeply towards the ground 15 meters in front of the goal and Khedira volleyed into the left corner. Union confidently played down the remaining minutes and will now play with additional self-confidence against Werder Bremen on Friday evening (8.30 p.m.).