After five games without a win, Borussia Mönchengladbach scored a breakthrough against VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga.
In front of 53,000 spectators in Borussia Park, Nathan Ngoumou scored first (28th), Julian Weigl increased with a penalty kick (35th), Rocco Reitz (72nd) followed up. After Philipp Hofmann (75th) was able to shorten the score, Jordan Siebatcheu (78th) restored the old distance. Keven Schlotterbeck’s goal (87th) came too late. Franck Honorat scored in stoppage time.
Thanks to the 5-2 win, the “Fohlenelf” climbed to eleventh place in the table, while Bochum slipped to 13th place. Due to traffic problems in front of the stadium, the game started ten minutes late.
Bochum’s early goal doesn’t count
Bochum initially celebrated their supposedly early lead in the 4th minute, but Bernardo took the ball with his right upper arm. After the VAR indicated, referee Sven Jablonski assessed the contact as a handball and revoked the goal. A little later, Gladbach came in front of the goal for the first time, but goalkeeper Manuel Riemann directed Jordan’s header onto the crossbar.
After a corner, Gladbach took the lead. Robin Hack pulled the ball in front of the goal from the left side with a lot of effort. Cristian Gamboa stumbled over the line of his own box while attempting to clear against Ngoumou. And the hosts quickly followed suit. After a foul by Ivan Ordets on Manu Koné, Jablonski decided to take a penalty, which Weigl converted against Riemann.
Hectic just before the break
After that it got hectic. Initially, Jablonski denied Gladbach a third goal after VAR indicated. After a one-two with Jordan, Florian Neuhaus hit the goal, but Jordan had previously held onto Ordets’ jersey. Because he felt disturbed in Stefan Lainer’s review area, Jablonski showed the Austrian yellow.
Neuhaus was apparently so angry about everything that he cleared Kevin Stöger on the sidelines a little later. The Gladbacher was shown a yellow card for this, just like Riemann on the Bochum side when the pack was subsequently formed and also Stöger, who had pushed Neuhaus over. During the break, tempers calmed down.
Nicolas saves against Kwarteng
Bochum had a better start to the second half. But Moritz Nicolas made a desperate save against Moritz Kwarteng, who had a clear path three meters in front of the goal. On the other side, during a counterattack after a nice pass from Neuhaus, Jordan put the ball just past the right post from six meters.
Bochum struggled to somehow score, which opened up space for the “Foals”. But they usually acted too hectic. Talk about hectic. There was also a lot of poison in the game in the second half, and the flow of the game was increasingly lacking due to the many fouls.
Honorat and Reitz bring momentum
Things got better when Gladbach coach Gerardo Seoane changed and brought Franck Honorat and Rocco Reitz into the game. Gladbach’s homegrown player Reitz then scored with a headbutt from Ngoumou’s cross to make it 3-0.
Hofmann then gave the Ruhrpottklub hope again. He scored from a pass from Gonçalo Paciência, which was definitely worth seeing. But the hope was short-lived, because just a short time later Jordan restored the old distance. He headed a cross from Honorat. Schlotterbeck’s goal came too late. Honorat even increased the score to 5-2 deep into stoppage time.
Gladbach in Mainz, Bochum against Leipzig
The next important game for Mönchengladbach is on the next match day. On Saturday (March 2nd, 2024/3:30 p.m.) we go to Mainz. Bochum expects RB Leipzig at the same time.