Marco Rose gambled away. With a B-Eleven after seven changes in the starting line-up, Borussia Mönchengladbach lost 1: 2 (1: 1) for the first time in three years in a derby against 1. FC Köln. Two goals from Elvis Rexhbecaj (3rd minute / 55th) gave Gladbach coach Rose in the fourth derby their first personal defeat in a duel with FC, which continued to defeat the fight against relegation.
The team of coach Markus Gisdol, which failed embarrassingly in the cup at the second division club Jahn Regensburg on Wednesday, won three of the last four Bundesliga games and is fourteenth in the table after 20 game days, eight points ahead of a direct relegation zone. “Derby winner, derby winner” cheered the professionals from Cologne hopping after the unexpected success
“We showed the right reaction. It’s easier for us against the big teams because we don’t have to play the game. The derby victory does all of Cologne, the fans, us as a club and us as a team incredibly well, “said FC keeper Timo Horn on the TV broadcaster Sky and added:” We have to continue like this over the next few weeks. Then I’m quite sure that we will get out of there. ”Match winner Rexhbecaj spoke of a“ reparation ”after the cup knockout and was looking forward to a“ nice bus ride ”.
Gladbach, on the other hand, was rudely slowed down in the fight for the Champions League ranks and lost a competitive game for the first time this year. The fourth goal of the season by Florian Neuhaus (16th) was too little for the Gladbach team in the 126th Rhine derby, who are still in seventh place with 32 points. Borussia also has to worry again about Denis Zakaria, who had to leave the field injured. The Swiss, who could bring the Gladbachers a high double-digit million amount in the summer, had been out for months last year.
Drexler incident causes trouble
At the end of an English week, Gladbach coach Rose rotated extremely and only sent a B-Elf onto the field. “We trust our squad. The last games were draining, we need maximum freshness on the pitch, “Rose said before the game on the pay-TV channel Sky, given seven changes in the starting line-up compared to the 2-1 in the cup round of 16 on Wednesday at VfB Stuttgart .
Defensively, his team was still disorganized at the beginning when the underdog surprisingly took the lead. Zakaria had moved up too far early on, which enabled Ondrej Duda to pass through to Rexhbecaj, which Gladbach keeper Yann Sommer had no chance. After that, Borussia had considerably more possession of the ball, but made too little of it.
After a good quarter of an hour, a long-range shot from Neuhaus deflected into his own net by Cologne’s Jorge Meré managed to equalize. The 19th Bundesliga game with at least one goal by Borussia was perfect. Such a series, which is currently only surpassed by Bayern Munich (33), was the last time the Gladbach team succeeded in 1985/1986.
Apart from Borussia’s field superiority, not much else happened until the break. The only two shots in the first half that hit the opposing goal also went into the net. Even after the change, the playfully limited Cologne team made it difficult for Borussia with high stakes.
FC Ultras had prepared the Cologne professionals for the derby with pyrotechnics on Friday when they left for Mönchengladbach. There was an incident that FC regretted on Saturday. Dominick Drexler, who initially only sat on the bench on Saturday, could be heard on a video, according to the “Bild” newspaper, as he expressed himself disparagingly about FC fans. Drexler said later that he wanted to “sincerely and sincerely apologize to the FC supporters.”
On the pitch in Gladbach, the FC professionals left this and the cup behind. “I was pissed off,” scolded FC coach Markus Gisdol on Saturday. The reaction of his players was mainly combat-oriented. With a lot of passion the Cologne fought Borussia without several injured regular players. A bad playback error by the weak Stefan Lainer enabled Rexhbecaj to score an early goal again at the beginning of the second half. Gladbach coach Rose reacted and brought in Marcus Thuram and Jonas Hofmann for the disappointing Hannes Wolf and Patrick Herrmann two regular forces for the attack. Borussia continued to press, but remained unsuccessful.
.
