Hecking team remains last
©IMAGO
With the first win of the new year, Borussia Mönchengladbach’s former coach Dieter Hecking dealt VfL Bochum a bitter setback in the relegation battle. After three defeats in a row, Gladbach won the West Derby 3-0 (1-0) on Hecking’s first return to Borussia Park. This means that the Reviereleven remains in last place in the table – even if the two additional points from the sports court ruling that are not yet included in the table are added.
In front of 53,635 fans in a mediocre Bundesliga game, Rocco Reitz (34th minute), Robin Hack (55th) and Tim Kleindienst (86th) scored the goals for Mönchengladbach. The Bochum team, who had previously only suffered one defeat in five games, now suffered their fifth defeat in the tenth game under Hecking.
After the 3-1 defeat in Leverkusen, Borussia’s coach Gerardo Seoane chose the more attacking midfield variant with former Bochum player Kevin Stöger for Philipp Sander. Right-back Joe Scally also came into the team for the more defensive Stefan Lainer and provided a lot of momentum from the start. The direction of travel for the hosts was therefore clear: the first points in 2025 should stay at Borussia Park.
But Hecking has stabilized his team in the fight to stay in the class. When Gladbach had the ball, the three-man defense grew into a five-man defensive line, which left the hosts little space and hardly any penetration. In addition, the guests, with their compact midfield line, repeatedly looked for the move to the Gladbach goal and caused danger, especially with corners.
In the game, which was characterized by many duels and at times disjointed, the Gladbachers had a good opportunity to score through left-back Lukas Ullrich (14th minute), but his header narrowly missed the goal. On the right offensive side, Tomas Cvancara, who was supposed to replace the injured Franck Honorat, once again did not play a major role.
Gladbach’s youngster Reitz then took over. The 22-year-old scored the opening goal before the break with a sensitive shot from a half-left position after a corner, which gave Gladbach’s game a little more security. It was the first goal of the season for the U21 international. The decision was made by Hack, who was set up by Kleindienst and made it 2-0 with a right-footed shot into the far corner. Kleindienst himself then made it 3-0 with a penalty kick. This means that Gladbach has moved up to eighth place in the table.