Despite their extreme efficiency, Borussia Mönchengladbach continues their series of inconsistency. Coach Gerardo Seoane’s team couldn’t get past a 3:3 (3:1) draw at SC Freiburg despite a clear lead and still has to wait for two Bundesliga wins in a row after 20 months. With ten points, the Rhinelanders, who got off to a weak start, still managed to break away from the bottom of the table.
Vincenzo Grifo (90th + 6, penalty kick) secured the sports club another point. Jordan Siebatcheu (25th), Alassane Plea (29th) and Julian Weigl (39th, penalty kick according to video evidence) took a clear half-time lead despite Lucas Höler’s early goal (7th). Thanks to Noah Weißhaupt (70th) and Grifo, the Breisgauer team averted their third competitive defeat in a row, but are still slowly in danger of losing touch with the European Cup places.
Coach Christian Streich had called for a reaction after the cup embarrassment against Paderborn (1:3). “We need stability, mentality, duel behavior and more courage,” said the 58-year-old. To do this, he made five changes back to the team that had narrowly lost 2-1 in the last league game in Leverkusen – and this had an effect. His team started like the fire department and overran Gladbach in the early stages.
Calm the game down
In front of 34,700 spectators, Merlin Röhl was denied by Moritz Nicolas after 63 seconds, then Höler shot into the arms of the goalkeeper from two meters (6th). Less than 60 seconds after his slapstick performance, Höler pushed a perfect Röhl cross pass into the empty goal. As a result, Borussia were able to calm the game down a bit and stabilize themselves on defense.
After a first warning shot from Plea (9th), a standard equalized: Jordan nodded in Luca Netz’s header after a long free kick, Noah Atubolu was no longer able to reach the goal with his fingertips. Gladbach gained a lot of self-confidence from this and took control of the game. Plea completed a strong but also extremely weakly defended solo run with the outside of her foot.
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Freiburg now seemed completely unsettled, Philipp Lienhart caused a penalty with a clumsy hold on Jordan. Weigl only failed because of Atubolu. But was allowed again because the goalkeeper had left the line too early and did it better.
After the change, Gladbach switched to management mode and waited extremely deep for counterattacks. Substitute Robin Hack forced Nicolas to make a brilliant save (65′). Freiburg struggled offensively, applied pressure, but rarely found any means against the dense defensive bulwark. Weißhaupt’s powerful hit under the crossbar came out of nowhere and was the starting signal for the final offensive. Grifo then kept his nerve from the point.
