week 14 - match report
0-1 in Mönchengladbach: Royal Blues suffer first away defeat
The match had hardly got going before the Royal Blues found themselves chasing the game. And Marco Reus’ goal in the 5th minute turned out to be the decider, as Schalke failed to find a way to convert clear superiority on the pitch into points.
Head coach Felix Magath’s team had been unbeaten for nine games and had no intention of ending this run in the Borussia Park. However, all it took was one long ball and a moment’s hesitation from the back four before the hosts were in front. “Evidently we forgot that Gladbach like hitting long balls,” said an annoyed Magath, commenting on the early setback. “Our problem was that we were caught napping.”
His side nevertheless responded well, seizing control, playing aggressively and moving the ball up to the front quickly. When it got there, however, there was a lack of ideas and by the time play reached the edge of Gladbach’s penalty area all creativity had been exhausted.
Magath reacted, bringing on Jan Moravek for Ivan Raktic at half-time. The home side limited themselves to quick counter-attacks and left it to the visitors to shape the game. For the Royal Blues, however, this was rather counter-productive: “So far, whenever we’ve had to dictate the play, we’ve never excelled,” said the coach, and this was to be the case again in front of a full house on Saturday. Magath switched formation, moving Joel Matip to central defence, Benedikt Höwedes from there out to the right and Rafinha into midfield. Schalke pressed forward, but Gladbach defended well and despite a lot of running and hard work the visitors hardly managed to create any serious goal opportunities. The best chance of an equaliser fell to Höwedes (85 minutes), whose position these days, however, is rather more of a defensive one: “Unfortunately, he didn’t take it like a striker,” said Magath.
It stayed at 1-0 to Borussia, a win that Gladbach’s head coach Michael Frontzeck described as “hard fought, because Schalke put us under pressure for practically the entire game.” Felix Magath, on the other hand, was annoyed by what he felt was an avoidable first away defeat of the season: “But it’s not a catastrophe. It’s still amazing, after all, that with such a young team we’ve suffered so few defeats. Going forward at the moment we’re not able to do any better. We’re not yet as coordinated or assured as we need to be.”
Mönchengladbach: Bailly - Levels, Brouwers, Dante, Jaures - Bradley, Marx - Reus, Arango (Kleine, 86) - Matmour (Meeuwis, 89), Friend (Bobadilla, 71)
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Höwedes, Bordon, Westermann - Matip - Moritz (Altintop, 60), Schmitz - Rakitic (Moravek, 46) - Farfan (Holtby, 85), Kuranyi
Goal: 1:0 Reus (5.)
Referee: Stark (Ergolding)
Attendance: 54,057 (sold out)
Yellow cards: - Rafinha (4), Moravek, Neuer (2), Holtby
