Borussia Mönchengladbach is still on the rise in the Bundesliga. At the start of the eleventh matchday, coach Gerardo Seoane’s team clearly defeated VfL Wolfsburg 4-0 (2-0) after two mistakes by goalkeeper Koen Casteels and, after seven points from the last three games, moved past Lower Saxony with the same points in the middle of the table.
“I always dreamed of scoring my first goal here. I’m very happy that I was able to help the team,” said Gladbach’s goalscorer Rocco Reitz on “DAZN”: “We did really well.” Borussia only lost a bit of control for “a few minutes after halftime”.
Tomas Cvancara (16th), Rocco Reitz (42nd), Franck Honorat (64th) and Alassane Plea (71st) scored the goals for the five-time German champions. After a good start to the season, Wolfsburg recently only got one point from five matches and is increasingly losing sight of the international places.
Coach Niko Kovac’s team got off to a good start in front of 45,308 spectators at Borussia Park. Jakub Kaminski scored the first goal (5th).
But after a quarter of an hour the hosts took command and took the lead with their first chance. A sharp cross from Honorat pushed Cvancara over the line in the style of a goalscorer.
Wolfsburg was shocked by the deficit and acted incorrectly. Gladbach almost doubled the lead just two minutes after taking the lead. Plea forced Casteels into a brilliant save.
Casteels makes several mistakes
As a result, the encounter plodded along, with numerous professionals having problems standing on the wet grass. Wolfsburg struggled offensively. The shots from Maximilian Arnold (26th) and Jonas Wind (36th) were not really dangerous.
On the other hand, Casteels made a strong save against Cvancara (38th), then the goalkeeper made a serious mistake on his comeback after a week-long injury break. Casteels played the ball right into Reitz’s feet in the penalty area, and the Gladbach homegrown player gratefully accepted the invitation. The 21-year-old celebrated his first Bundesliga goal with abandon.
Wolfsburg came out of the break swinging. Goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas had to stretch a lot when Aster Vranckx finished (46′). As a result, VfL remained dominant in the game, Borussia, like last week in Freiburg (3:3 after 3:1), became a bit passive for a short time and were lucky: a shot from Wind hit the outside post (53′).
Kovac then brought fresh forces with Ridle Baku and Lovro Majer. But Wolfsburg struggled to find gaps. At the other end, Honorat shot from distance after a corner, Casteels didn’t look good again. Plea then crowned his strong performance with the fourth goal.