Match Report: Borussia Mönchengladbach (H)

Pre-match

After a well-matched draw against Leipzig and a swaggering away win against Hoffenheim last week, we came into today's game against Gladbach with something dangerously like hope.

Steffen Baumgart's Union are certainly a work in progress, but to go from goal shy to knocking in 4 away pointed to a team on the up.

We would see today against upper mid-table Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Before the team sheets came out I couldn't name a single BMG player, but with the likes of Weigl and Stöger in the starting lineup you sensed this would be a tidy team.

The AF filled up fast against a bitterly cold Berlin backdrop. Not a flake of snow on the pitch, but icy scenes all around the stadium.

Team news came in, with Ilic starting up front, and in the warmup you realised what an absolute unit the kid is.

We were missing Kemlein, Vogt and Trimmel from the squad due to bans, knocks etc, but on paper we looked solid enough.

A heartening message in the announcements was (if I followed properly, my German ain't so hot) from the fan who collapsed away at Stuttgart a couple of months ago, back and enjoying the game from the Haupttribune.

Big applause again for the fans who helped him, and nicely received by the away fans too.

I found myself having a lot of time for the travelling fans from Mönchengladbach. There were a few in the s-bahn carriage on their first visit to Köpenick, and they were friendly, chatty and surprisingly complimentary about the glorious forests of the Wuhlheide.

I still hoped their team would be crap.

First Half

Their team were not, in fact, crap.

Union started brightly enough, pressing and harrying the defence.

Juranovic robbed a man right on the edge of the Gladbach box. In a sliding doors moment, he checked back rather than bombing forward, and the chance to get in went begging.

We got some crosses into the box from the right, focusing on going deep where Ilic or Skov could get the jump on the defenders, but it came to no more than a couple of looping headers.

Gladbach settled quickly and frankly blew us away, despite their all-green kit making them all look like goalkeepers.

They quickly worked out how to expose our full backs, Weigl and Stöger dropping a bit deep to let them play around our attackers, and they repeatedly had 2 or 3 against 1 down our flanks.

We had a warning after only a few minutes, Rönnow just getting to a through ball ahaead of the striker.

It was the wings that were the biggest worry though. Skov had already been skinned twice by Scally and Ngoumou, passing triangles around him, when the same thing happened on the opposite flank.

Juranovic was left for dead, Hack twinkled into the box on the left and there were seemingly four of them lining up to finish, Ullrich eventually slamming in at the near post.

Union were, to a man, asleep. In contrast to the guests, who looked so tidy and comfortable on the ball, we were second to every ball, couldn't put a pass together, and couldn't beat a man.

The game was slow and broken up - the Gladbach keeper having to go off after sliding to save a rare header from Ilic.

Gladbach were two up after about 20 minutes, a carbon copy of the first move this time on the right wing. Skov was all alone dealing with 3 players, Ngoumou got in on the right then picked out Kleindienst with a lovely low cross. The big lump couldn't miss from two yards.

In between, the fans had observed a minute's silence for a departed Unioner, Nici, and it was beautfiully observed all around the ground, the Gladbach fans bringing their own banner of condolences out.

Skov hurt himself in the buildup to the goal and Rothe came in, but fortunes did not really improve.

From our position in Sektor 3 we were seeing an awful lot of goalmouth action but unfortunately it was all from Gladbach as Union sat in and tried to avoid further damage.

Rönnow made a save full stretch to his right as we failed to clear a corner, and another to his left after we failed to clear a another corner and Ngoumou almost drilled in at the near post.

Full and frank discussions were being had all around the defence, but it just looked like our system could not handle the visitors gameplan.

The crowd were growing very frustrated, the team standing off in defence and then checking back every time we got a chance to go forward, a really off-colour performance on the whole.

We somehow survived into half time just two down, and almost scraped one back after Hollerbach finally beat Scally and crossed low for Ilic, whose flicked effort inside the box spun just wide.

Second Half

We comforted ourselves that the second half could not get worse, or so we hoped. Baumgart switched the system at half time, young tank Leo Querfeld coming on for Skarke as we switched from 4 to 5 at the back.

We thought Jeong would have come off as he seemed to be having the worst half compared to Skarke, but to his and Union's credit the second half was much brighter.

I don't know whether Gladbach sat back or whether we nullified them, but Union were on top from the get go in the second half.

Hollerbach had been quiet but started having an impact again, switching flanks at will to cause trouble.

We started playing the visitors at their own game, going around the full backs with one-twos to open up crossing opportunities.

Hollerbach and Rothe combined down the left to send Hollerbach in, sweeping in a delicious outswinging cross right across the six yard box, but nobody gambled on it and it ran through everyone.

Then Juranovic cut the Gladbach defence open with a beautifully simple through ball to the marauding Jeong. Jeong broke into the box and laid it back for Hollerbach, charging in from deep.

The strike was a beauty but a combination of goalkeeper and Scally combined to desperately block it out, Haberer screwing the difficult followup well wide.

The pressure from Union was relentless now - what a transformation! What a fucking pity we couldn't do this in the first half.

Juranovic was involved again, recycling a corner and given time on the right to curl a corss towards Rothe at the far post. He looked odds on to score before Kleindienst simply pushed him in the back.

Amazingly neither referee nor linesman gave it, obvious penalty though it was from our vantage point.

VAR eventually intervened and the penalty was given. Ilic had to stand over it for an age, but was ice cold with the spot kick to reduce arrears to 2-1.

I would have left him on, but that was Ilic's last kick, Prtajin and Benes on as we ticked past 60 minutes.

Gladbach finally started showing signs of life as we pushed forward more and more, but it was still Union looking likely.

The confidence and execution just wasn't quite there, though, players hesitating or taking the easy backpass instead of playing forward.

Into the last 10 minutes Doekhi, started playing up front while Ljubicic and Schäfer came on, things looking a bit desperate.

It nearly backfired as Gladbach got forward quickly, Kleindienst all on his own to run in against Rönnow from the left, thankfully our great Dane standing tall and parrying a fierce strike.

6 added minutes had us feverishly screaming the team forward, but we seemed to break down every time on the edge of the box in heavy congestion.

Prtajin did really well to pull one out of the air, pirouette and fire off a daisy-cutter which flashed wide, it would have been some goal.

Too hesitant again, it seemed like Gladbach would ride it out, but there was a final twist as Juranovic's cross was flicked on by the telescopic leg of Doekhi.

You heard the collective gasp as it seemd to be falling perfectly for Rothe to snatch the most unlikely of draws, but it flew past him by an inch and the chance was gone.

The final whistle went, and despite the marked improvement we left empty-handed.

Certainly encouragement to be taken from the second half. Querfeld was solid when he came on, Ilic was cool, Prtajin was a handful, Juranovic looked back on it and Rothe was dangerous.

But we can't be throwing away the first half of games and expect to get much out of them. We also need a bit more nous and decisiveness in the final third.

It's been a strange few games - at times abject, at times glorious, today both of those in one.

Baumgart is certainly overhauling things, especially up front, so hopefully we can keep moving generally in the right direction in the coming weeks.

But so often it's the hope that kills you.

Fans were in good spirits as we slid and skidded up the frozen Waldweg to the sweaty embrace of the Abseitsfalle, more than a few tumbles being had on the sheet ice.

Still no better place to be on a frozen Saturday.

Eisern!

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By @MarkJB on Bluesky