Borussia 7 points ahead of 16th place
Hertha loses. Again. What is it for coach Korkut? The Berlin club is likely to face a longer night. On the other hand, Borussia Mönchengladbach can take a deep breath. Especially coach Hütter, who followed the victory from the corona quarantine.
After the next setback in the fight against Bundesliga relegation, Tayfun Korkut should not be the coach of Hertha BSC for much longer. On Saturday evening, the Berliners, who had been harmless again for a long time and were still without a win this year, lost the crisis duel at Borussia Mönchengladbach 0:2 (0:1) and slipped to the penultimate place in the table on the 26th matchday. A penalty converted by Alassane Plea (24th minute) and a header by Matthias Ginter (59th), on the other hand, sealed the important victory for Borussia, who had also been reeling recently, in front of 30,675 fans.
The first three-point success in a month was particularly beneficial for Korkut’s colleague Adi Hütter – the Austrian was also criticized. However, he did not experience the victory in the stadium, Hütter was in quarantine due to a corona infection. With 30 points now, Gladbach have a seven-point lead over Hertha and the relegation zone with eight games to go before the end of the season.
Under the responsibility of assistant coach Christian Peintinger, the long-standing top club showed a committed and, above all, solid performance against Hertha, who had been weak for a long time. For the first time since the 4-0 win against newly promoted Fürth on match day 12, the third-weakest defense in the league kept a clean sheet.
The guests were set up extremely defensively by Korkut, but still had extreme problems with the fast Marcus Thuram and only took up offensive action for a short time after the break. That should have been it for the Hertha coach. Managing Director Fredi Bobic had previously unequivocally demanded points from Korkut. “I’m particularly interested in the way we play,” said Bobic before the game on “Sky” and added: “We’ll see what the consequences and consequences are.” The way was up to a short Rearing up in the second half not good – Hertha remains the worst team in the second half of the season.
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Gladbach’s coach Hütter was also under pressure after the disastrous 2-3 lead after a 2-0 lead at VfB Stuttgart. Borussia’s sports director Roland Virkus then backed the Austrian and announced that he only wanted to pursue “a plan A”. “The plan is that we also play with Adi Hütter on the bench in Bochum on Friday,” Virkus said again shortly before the game. For this, the Austrian has to get out of his corona isolation.
His assistant Peintinger sent all his available offensive power onto the pitch. The team resolutely implemented the route set by sports director Virkus (“The team has to deliver today”). Committed from the start, Borussia pushed the Berliners onto the defensive. Breel Embolo put the first chance of the game against the post (9th) and Thuram (14th) also remained dangerous. The Frenchman, who was still badly criticized for his lethargic style of play against Stuttgart, also got the penalty kick after a good 20 minutes, which Plea converted into the lead.
Marc Oliver Kempf was clearly too late against Thuram in the penalty area, which referee Florian Badstübner only saw after studying the video images. For Plea, his penalty goal was the seventh scorer point in the sixth consecutive game. Marcel Lotka, who was somewhat surprisingly in goal again, had no chance. After a corona infection, regular keeper Alexander Schwolow was not in the squad at all. Lotka was the best Berliner.
The interim high of the guests, who also became more aggressive after the change with Suat Serdar, fizzled out quickly. National player Ginter made the reassuring preliminary decision for Borussia after a corner by former Berliner Luca Netz.
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