The fact that Borussia Mönchengladbach clearly won an emotional derby in the Bundesliga against 1. FC Köln 5-2 on Sunday (October 9th, 2022) was also due to the decisive signals that Gladbach’s captain Lars Stindl gave.
In order to understand the very special meaning of this duel between the Rhine rivals (although Gladbach is not actually on the Rhine, but only on the Niers, but only marginally), a look at the two previous duels in Borussia Park is enough.
Bad mistakes by Rose and Hütter
In February 2021 Gladbach played at the top and Cologne at the bottom, so Marco Rose had a very special idea. Without being forced to do so by the chasing deadlines in football, he suddenly threw on the wild rotor, changed his team to seven positions and started with a better B-Elf. Cologne, with the badly injured Markus Gisdol on the bench, rightly felt provoked, not taken seriously and deservedly won 2-1 – Rose then completely messed with his own fans before he announced his move to Dortmund.
The following year, his successor Adi Hütter made a serious tactical mistake against FC, released the wings defensively with a three-man chain and two wingers that were far too high. Cologne won 3-1 without much effort – and Hütter was already history at VfL after the season.
“I have a feeling for the limit”
Gladbach’s captain Lars Stindl remembered these two games after the 5: 2 on Sunday (October 9th, 2022) and said to the sports show: “The win now was all the more important when you think back to our last 18 months. That’s why it was very important to me in the initial phase to really emotionalize my colleagues. It was on the limit, but I think I have a really good feeling for it .”
What Stindl meant by “emotionalising”: After just a minute and a half he got yellow with an overly hard tackle on the sidelines, but with that he also made a mark like guys like Stefan Effenberg and Mark van Bommel used to like to do. It sounds a little straight out of football, but it actually gave the game a direction.
Consequences for Kainz and Cologne
Stindl admitted: “You can’t overdo it, of course I have respect for my opponents, but it was important.” Cologne felt compelled to react to Stindl’s foul, so Florian Kainz also picked up a yellow card, which had decisive consequences shortly before the break: After his arm landed in Jonas Hofmann’s face in the penalty area, Mönchengladbach and den received penalties Sending off for Kainz.
Ramy Bensebaini converted the penalty, but that was doubly happy from Gladbach’s point of view. The Algerian, who later made it 4-1 and became a key figure in the game, shouldn’t have been on the pitch at all.
Bensebaini should have seen red
In the 38th minute, Bensebaini attacked Dejan Ljubicic with an open sole, who then had to be substituted injured and will now be out until the end of the year with a knee injury.
FC coach Steffen Baumgart said later understandably. “For me, that was one of two key scenes, along with the penalty and Florian’s legitimate dismissal. With the speed, below the ankle and above the knee, that’s more than a yellow card for me.”
Also a sporty sign
This was the fact that referee Sven Jablonski gave mercy to justice and was not asked to the sidelines by VAR Daniel Schlager either “Limit” that Stindl had spoken of. It could have gone wrong, even with the ex-national player himself. After his early warning, Stindl committed two more – albeit not so serious – fouls: the Cologne team had also asked him to be sent off during the game.
This is one of the reasons why Gladbach coach Daniel Farke got his captain off the field in the 52nd minute, even though he had given a decisive sporting signal just five minutes earlier: FC did not recover from Stindl’s full-span shot to make it 3-1, and would have against them afterwards Gladbacher number can go down even worse.
Thuram provokes with the Modeste cheers
Marcus Thuram alone had four big chances before he used the fifth to make it 5-2. The Frenchman then provoked the Cologne fans by performing the Modeste jubilation with imitation glasses in front of the guest curve. It was an action that somehow tried hard, seemed almost silly. But she proved: In contrast to the disasters of Rose and Hütter, Gladbach did not want to underestimate this derby again, but wanted to set an example – meaningful or less meaningful.