Pure compassion spoke from the victorious opponent Max Kruse. “Gladbach’s luck isn’t exactly on their side at the moment either,” said Union Berlin’s double goal scorer after the 2-1 (1-1) win at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Three days after the apocalyptic 3-0 Cup defeat at second division Hannover 96, Gladbach suffered their fourth home defeat in a row despite a solid performance that would have been worthy of a win.
It was Kruse who sent the long-suffering Borussia even deeper into the vale of gloom with six minutes to go. The Gladbachers still have a three-point lead over the relegation zone and four over the direct relegation zone. The next opponents are the basement children Arminia Bielefeld (away) and FC Augsburg (at home). “We absolutely have to score points,” says coach Adi Hütter. The situation is becoming more critical.
Max Kruse scores for Union Berlin and also has sympathy for the opponent.
(Foto: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images)
Ironically, two unfortunate actions by Gladbach midfielder Denis Zakaria decided the game against Union. Zakaria is the Gladbach player who will be free of contract and free of charge next summer, which the club would therefore like to sell this January. Bayern Munich is also considered to be interested.
In the 18th minute, Zakaria was responsible for the hand penalty that gave Kruse the 1-0 lead, and in the 84th minute he didn’t hit a free kick properly in his own penalty area, so that Union Niko Gießelmann scored the winning goal with a through ball on Kruse could initiate. “It’s hitting us really hard at the moment,” said Hütter about Gladbach’s unfortunate situations.
“Defensively we weren’t good enough again,” says Jonas Hofmann
Borussia approached the game in a flat 5-4-1 formation much more cautiously than the previous games. Those who have been attacked by sharks out in the sea prefer to stay in knee-deep water for the time being. Attacker Jonas Hofmann, who was back in the team after six weeks, was also heavily involved in the explicit defense work.
Borussia had to do without their captain Lars Stindl, who tore the inner ligament in his knee during training on Friday and will probably be out for weeks. Gladbach is also unlucky this season. Relevant players keep dropping out.
The cautious is actually not the kind of football that coach Hütter likes to play, but this new and necessary caution was good for Gladbach. The young Frenchman Kouadio “Manu” Koné, who came last summer, made up for the 0:1 deficit caused by Kruse’s penalty (18th minute) in the 40th minute with a fantastic flick from 16 meters to make it 1:1 at halftime. The preparations by Breel Embolo and Hofmann had already looked very good and also showed that Gladbach’s football culture is still flashing here and there. “Good, boys!” The stadium announcer called into his microphone after the break, as if it were E-Juniors on the pitch.
What should he do? It’s not going well for Adi Hütters Gladbacher, but separation from the coach shouldn’t be an issue yet.
(Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa)
The stability thus regained encouraged Gladbach to play more offense in the second half. They didn’t create too many good scoring chances because they didn’t want to risk too much against latently dangerous Berliners, but the opportunity for the young winger Luca Netz alone would be fifteen minutes before the end, when he shot the ball over the goal from five meters been good for a tour.
Coach Hütter wants to make his team “zero point zero reproach”.
The fact that the game was actually lost was also due to Zakaria’s failed defensive action in the 84th minute. The Swiss didn’t hit a cross from Levin Öztunali correctly and played just outside the penalty area to Unions Gießelmann, who with a deep pass reached Kruse in an exemplary manner, who made it 2-1.
“We had to try our luck,” admitted Berlin coach Urs Fischer. “Union made two goals out of a chance,” said Gladbach’s Hütter, wanting to show how unfortunate and undeserved he felt about the defeat.
His attacker Hofmann was not so far removed from this opinion, but even in this unfortunate defeat he recognized the sober deficits of Borussia. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the crucial moments and we weren’t good enough defensively again,” he said. At 37, Gladbach has the third most goals conceded in the league. In the last three competitive games there were four penalties against Borussia alone. This is also an expression of insufficient defensive behavior.
“The defeat is another blow to the neck,” said Hütter, “however, the team showed a completely different face than in Hanover.” He could blame her “zero point zero”: “The defense looked very good.” He wanted players on the pitch “who give their all for 90 minutes” – and he saw them too. Gladbach now has two weeks to prepare for the basement duel in Bielefeld. Then it goes straight back to the nitty-gritty – and for Hütter once again arguments for continuing his work. Nothing indicates a separation yet.
