AArm in arm, the Werder professionals danced in front of their fans and exuberantly celebrated the first Bundesliga home win in 19 months – and what a win! Bremen, who played like unleashed in the early stages, clearly won 5-1 (4-0) against Borussia Mönchengladbach, who had been overwhelmed for a long time, and jumped up to eighth place in the table.
“A huge knot burst,” said double goalscorer Niclas Füllkrug: “That was a world-class first half today.” The attacker has already scored seven goals after eight league games and could be a World Cup candidate for the national team in this top form. The Bremen fans were already loudly demanding: “Lücke (nickname of Füllkrug/ed.Red.) for Germany!”
In addition to Füllkrug (5th and 13th minutes), strike partner Marvin Ducksch (8th) was also successful, scoring his first goal of the season. “The boys always believed in it, I always believed in it,” said Ducksch. With their early goals, the strike duo set a record in the club’s history: Never before had Bremen been 3-0 up after 13 minutes in a Bundesliga game. In addition, Mitchell Weiser (73′) scored for Bremen, and the completely indisposed Ramy Bensebaini scored an own goal (37′), in which he unchallengedly jumped the ball into the goal with the outside.
Gladbach falls back in the table
The mishap of the Algerian full-back was symbolic of the unfocused and strangely disembodied performance of the European Cup contenders in the first half. “We were simply not there in the first 15 minutes,” criticized goalkeeper Yann Sommer: “We have to analyze the game very well and question ourselves. It’s no use banging your head against the wall either. We stayed together in the second half.”
Coach Daniel Farke’s team, for whom Marcus Thuram only scored to make it 4-1 (63rd), suffered an inexplicable slump in performance just two weeks after the 3-0 gala against RB Leipzig and fell behind Bremen in ninth place in the table .
At the first goal, Kouadio Koné, who was far too passive, did not prevent the setter Romano Schmid from crossing, and in the middle goalscorer Füllkrug escaped his guard Joe Scally. Only three minutes later, Borussia again fell too sleepy and made mistakes in defense when Ducksch used a dust-off to make it 2-0. The Gladbachers were shocked by the double strike – but it got even worse: After a completely unsuccessful attempt to clear the ball by Bensebaini, Ducksch put his strike partner Füllkrug on his second goal.
Gladbach gave a first sign of life in the 18th minute, but Christoph Kramer missed the goal. The 2014 World Champion, actually at home on the defensive, once again played in attacking midfield from the start. His main task was the early pressing – but the plan didn’t work at all. It was Bremen who interfered aggressively and early.
Farke did not make any substitutions at the change of sides, and the unfortunate Bensebaini was also allowed to continue playing. Defensively, Gladbach was now much safer. The Bremen team no longer attacked their opponents as aggressively as in the first half, but still had chances, as with Weiser’s crossbar header (59′). Gladbach’s rebellion was rewarded with a goal from Thuram, but Weiser restored the four-goal gap.
:quality(70):focal(3729x2624:3739x2634)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/liberation/7S4AHJUZNZBWLNYH6AGW4MFXPE.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
