This Sunday, the Borussia-Park prepares to host a match up drenched in German footballing history, as Borussia Monchengladbach take on FC Schalke 04. Ashley Adamson-Edwards takes you through the action as it happens.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter a disappointing end to their last two league games, Marco Rose will be looking to bounce his side back into the top four running with a win tonight. However, considering their recent Champions League success, their defeat and draw to Leverkusen and Augsburg may worry some fans whilst sitting in seventh place, five points behind fourth.
On the bright side for Rose though, Schalke currently sit bottom of the league and haven’t managed to pick up three points all season. Furthermore, over the course of Gladbach’s last 13 home league games, they’ve managed to come up with the opening goal ten times.
More worryingly for The Royal Blues, the last 11 away games they’ve played and subsequently lost, they’ve also gone and conceded first 10 times.
Embed from Getty ImagesIf Schalke are going to take something from tonight’s game, manager Manuel Baum may have to work out how his side can claw their way back into the contest.
Teams News
Between the sticks for the home side tonight is Yann Sommer who’s already provided a clean sheet for the team this week, in their 4-0 thrashing of Shaktar Donetsk.
As appose to the in-form Nico Elverdi, Rose has decided to go with experience against The Royal Blues with Tony Jantschke and Matthias Ginter taking up the centre of defence. To flank them is Valentino Lazaro and Oscar Wendt. Although Gladbach would have liked to start with Ramy Bensebini, the coronavirus marks out the Algerian this weekend.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter a what feels like a long wait for the Foals, their midfield is finally graced by Dennis Zakaria in the league as he makes a return from injury. He’ll join up with Florian Neuhaus to block out any threats to the centre-half’s.
Up front Rose lines up with an exciting front four of Patrik Hermann, Breel Embolo, Marcus Thuram and Alassane Plea. With a spectacular over-head-kick goal in the Champions League this week, Embolo will act as the number 10 for the side whilst looking to link up with Plea who sits just in front of him as the main striker.
Embed from Getty ImagesMeanwhile, Thuram will retain the left-wing position whilst Hermann sits on the right. Two right-footed players, one looking to cut in from their wing and the other to cross from wide positions.
Frederik Roennow will face the fierce front four of Gladbach tonight as he makes his sixth appearance of the campaign.
Unlike the home side, Manuel Baum has opted with a three-man defence of Matija Nastasic, Malick Thiaw and young star Ozan Kabak. Just in front of them Steven Skrzybski and Kilian Ludewig will act as wing-backs/central midfielders as Pep Guardiola’s revolution of turning full-backs into midfielders is made evident. Meanwhile, Omar Mascrall takes up the number 6 role to sweep up at the back.
Embed from Getty ImagesAlthough he’s only recorded 2 goals and 1 assist this season, Mark Uth is Baum’s most dangerous threat currently as he strangely takes up the midfield with Suat Serdar.
And as Schalke make a desperate attempt at breaking down the home side this evening, Benito Raman and Matthew Hoppe will need to give everything tonight as the two main forwards.
Kick Off
0′ And we’re off here at the Borussia-Park as Plea gets us underway!
Just prior to kick-off, both teams pay their respects to Diego Maradona with a moment of silence. A true legend of the game, gone but never forgotten.
Embed from Getty Images2′ Wendt’s ball into box from a free-kick isn’t able to trouble the Schalke defence, as the ball is cleared from the danger zone.
4′ Uth’s shot from just outside the box wasn’t strong enough to leave the ground as Sommer collects comfortably.
Although the counter from Baum’s side did look quite promising, eventually the 29-year-old German didn’t fulfil its potential.
8′ Zakaria fails to hit the target with an ambitious volley from outside the box.
9′ The young target man, Hopper, drags his volley just wide of the far post as he records Schalke’s best chance of the game so far.
Baum will be encouraged with the chances his side has created so far considering his side has the lowest amount of goals this season.
12′ Skrzybski headers wide of the Gladbach goal with a powerful jump to reach Uth’s cross.
As Schalke continue to create chances, do you think that The Royal Blues could steal a result this evening?
15′ GOAL – Borussia Monchengladbach
Embed from Getty ImagesThe home side open the scoring tonight as Neuhaus threads a powerful rebound into the Schalke goal!
After Roennow was forced off his line to close down Embolo, he did well to parry the shot away and out of the box. However, Neahuas got over the ball and somehow powered it through five Schalke defenders.
Although there was a brief debate for an own goal, the goal was given to German midfielder.
20′ GOAL – Schalke
Embed from Getty ImagesBenito Raman shows his technical ability with a brilliantly timed volley into the top-right corner.
With a well-timed chipped ball through to the Belgian, Raman was able to compose himself and fire home his first goal for Schalke since last year.
The Royal Blues have been lifted and they’re hungry for more!
24′ Kabak shows his ability to spread play at distance with a long range ball over to Hopper, unfortunately, the attack came to nothing as the ball was chased out of play by Gladbach.
25′ Jantschke makes a defining block to deny Schalke building on their momentum.
Once the Blues got hold of the ball in the opposition penalty area, they were eventually able to find Hopper who had his shot counted out.
28′ Schalke come so close to going ahead with Uth’s free-kick scrapes off the post.
Once the referee had realised that Lazaro’s challenge on Raman was worthy of a free-kick for Baum’s side, Uth stepped up with conviction but only just missed out on finding the back of the net.
The visitors have shocked everyone here tonight with a great performance so far against a well established Champions League team. However, will they be able to pick up their first win in 24 Bundesliga matches?
32′ Thuram’s quick feet managed to get himself into a position to cross the ball across the face of Schalke box. With teammates lurking at the back, the Foals were left disappointed as Roennow came out quick to get two hands on the situation.
34′ Ludewig is handed a yellow card by the official whilst bringing down Thuram to stop the Frenchman racing away on goal.
36′ GOAL -Borussia Moncehngladbach
Embed from Getty ImagesWendt is able to restore Gladbach’s lead with his first Bundesliga goal of the season!
Once Neuhuas found himself charging through the middle of the park, he eventually noticed his Swedish fullback breaking away from Ludewig and played him through. Once the Swede took his first touch, there was only one thing on his mind as he tucked the ball under the keeper with a sliding effort.
The visitors have tried and tried again but the quality of Rose’s side have managed to put away the 26th goal that Schalke have conceded already this campaign.
Embed from Getty Images39′ Thuram takes advantage of Ludewig’s lack of experience once again whilst cutting inside and getting a shot off.
If fit wasn’t for the shot being blocked and deflected out for a corner, Ludewig would have been at fault for yet another defensive disaster for Schalke.
39′ Thuram comes so close to grabbing his first goal since the second game of the season with a thrashing header against the crossbar!
With the newly announced French international winning the corner in the first place, he timed his jump to perfection to meet the ball with such power!
43′ Although it seems as though Thuram is the only one one pitch right now, his disguised run gave the home side a strong chance at getting their third. But, no one was on the end of the winger’s sweep of the ball across the six-yard box as the score remains 2-1.
45′ It’s all about Borussia Monchengladbach now as Embolo comes so close to scoring against his former side.
It was Wendt that crossed a great ball into the box, he really is doing so well to establish himself into Rose’s side whilst Bensebini recovers.
47′ HALF-TIME
Half-Time
The visitors brought a fine ambition to West Germany tonight as they created some fine chances to start the game. However, it was Borussia Monchengladbach who opened the scoring with Neuhaus’ low driven volley squeezing its way into the goal.
But Baum and his side weren’t going to give up too early this evening as Raman scored a fabulous volley. As he got in-behind the Gladbach back-line, a well disguised over the top ball found the Belgian lurking in space.
Embed from Getty ImagesSixteen minutes later though Gladbach hit back again with Wendt exposing Ludewig’s positioning and tucking the ball under Roennow.
It was certainly looking like Schalke could pick up a win here tonight after playing so well and making so many strong chances, but Rose’s side goes into the dressing room with the lead as quality defeats quantity.
| Borussia Monchengladbach | Schalke 04 | |
| Shots on target | 3 | 2 |
| Shots off target | 7 | 3 |
| Possession percentage | 57 | 43 |
| Corners | 4 | 1 |
| Offsides | 1 | 1 |
| Fouls committed | 2 | 6 |
Second-Half
46′ Schalke kick off the second half tonight as they remain hopeful to still take something from tonight’s contest.
46′ Thuram is booked just as we get back underway after pulling on the shirt of Ludewig.
It looks like the pair will continue to battle it out for the remainder of tonight after Ludewig also got booked for a similar action on Thuram earlier on.
48′ Questions are starting to be asked of Ludewig as he fouls another Gladbach player. Baum won’t exactly be pleased with the young wing-back as he continues to put his side at risk of going down to ten men.
50′ Thiaw risks getting sent off for the visitors as he does everything in his power to bring down the on-rushing Embolo!
If Kabak wasn’t able to cover for Thiaw and put himself between Embolo and the goal, an argument could have been made for Thiaw to be denying a goal scoring opportunity.
52′ GOAL – Borussia Monchengladbach
Thuram finally scores again in the Bundesliga with a shot into the roof of the net!
Following the recent incident that awarded Gladbach the free-kick, a ball was floated towards the far post which allowed Wendt to header the ball back across the opposition six-yard box.
Once Plea swung at the chance and had his shot saved by Roennow, Thuram was there to follow up the rebound as he fired home to record his second goal of the season.
56′ Now that they have a well-cushioned lead, Gladbach are trying to kill all hope the Blues had for this evening as they retain possession well.
Schalke have now gone 16 league games without picking up an away win, after losing to the likes of Bayern München, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund whilst on the road. If Baum’s side are too turn around their horrific start to the season, something will need to change.
59′ Skrzybski’s shot is glanced well wide whilst cutting inside from the right-flank.
62′ Roennow stays cool to deny Plea of putting Gladbach three ahead!
With Thuram fizzing the ball forward for the sprinting Plea, Kabak eventually retained possession for his side but then lost it again to nearly allow the French striker a goal.
64′ Substitution – Schalke
64′ A huge opportunity for Thuram to score his second of the game is wasted with a clear shot dragged wide.
Schalke aren’t helping themselves at all right now as their defence continues to be left completely open for Gladbach to take advantage.
64′ Substitution – Borussia Monchengladbach
66′ Neuhaus lets fly a beautiful strike to force Roennow into action and tip the ball over the bar. Such a powerful strike from the midfielder as he builds on an already brilliant performance.
If anything was to spell out how much the game has swayed Gladbach’s way in the last 20 minutes, its the six shots they’ve recorded compared to Schalke’s one. As long as the game remains this way, Rose will have pushed his side further up the Bundesliga tonight.
70′ Mascarell earns a yellow card as he clatters down Thuram.
Thuram showed once again just how well he’s able to hold up the ball and breeze past opposition players, eventually frustrating the Spanish defensive midfielder and drawing a foul.
71′ Substitution – Borussia Monchengladbach
74′ Schalke look to be coming too life all of a sudden as Ludewig continues to pile crosses into Gladbach’s box. Fortunately for the Foals, not much is getting past their defence tonight.
76′ Hermann denies his side a fourth goal as he ignored his fellow team mates in the box and went at it alone.
However, despite his experience in the Bundesliga, the wide man selfishly found the side-netting as the likes of Plea and Stindl look across with anger.
80′ GOAL – Borussia Monchengladbach
Embed from Getty ImagesHannes Wolf makes his mark on the game to put the ball into the back of the net for the fourth time for the Foals!
As Plea bared down on goal after a neat turn at the halfway point, it would be wrong to not point out how much space he had as he simply ran towards the Schalke penalty area, unchallenged.
His intelligence then served him well as he slipped the ball off the Wolf who glided the ball into the bottom-right corner with a left footed strike. Rose will be happy with that one!
81′ Substitution – Borussia Monchengladbach
84′ Uth lashes out in frustration to earn another yellow card for Schalke. Even though he lost out on holding the ball to a brilliantly timed tackle and then lunged into the foot of Jantschke, Uth still had the cheek to confront the referee and argue against the booking.
89′ As the game approaches it’s end, we are reminded as to just how much of a decline Schalke have seen over the past few years.
Although they produced a fine performance at the start of the match, Baum will have to pull off something special if he wants to keep The Royal Blues in the top flight of German football next season.
91′ FULL-TIME
The referee blows for full-time as the score line reads Borussia Monchengladbach 4, Schalke 04 1.
Make that 25 games without a Bundesliga win for Schalke.
Embed from Getty ImagesFull-Time
Schalke’s season just keeps getting worse as they’re reminded just how bad of a job they’ve done so far. Despite their ambitious performance to start the match, the quality of Borussia Monchengladbach came out on top.
Whilst Schalke look to be down and out already after these first nine matches, Gladbach still have so much more to fight for.
