Bundesliga
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A victory over Bochum will only be the beginning for Gladbach
The Gladbach professionals celebrated their home win against Bochum. Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
Mönchengladbach Borussia Mönchengladbach explodes after the mandatory victory over Bochum to catch up with the Bundesliga. The previous 5-0 win over Bayern Munich in the DFB Cup boosted their long-term self-confidence.
For Jonas Hoffmann, Borussia Mönchengladbach’s trend in the table can only pick up after the mandatory win over VfL Bochum.
“We have to keep scoring even after the international break,” the international said after the 2-1 (2-0) game against Bochum on Sunday. “The three points were important in order not to lose contact with the international centers,” said Hoffman, who scored 2-0 (40th minute) against the rising team. Al Hassan Bly (12) scored Gladbach’s first goal early. Danny Blume’s 86th goal for Bochum came too late.
After a few recent setbacks in the league, Borussia jumped past their traditional rivals 1. FC Köln in 10th place. “It is of course important that we stand in front of them. But we want to climb more places,” Hoffman said.
What Borussia can achieve was shown in their impressive 5-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the DFB Cup on Wednesday. In the league before that, she had twice failed to beat supposedly weaker opponents such as VfB Stuttgart (1:1) and Hertha BSC (0:1). Against Bochum, a victory in a dominant-led game on the final stage was again in unnecessary danger, as once again a number of brilliant second-half opportunities remained untapped.
Hoffmann and defender Matthias Ginter said: “If we had still conceded the second goal, we would have beheaded. Everyone knows we have already dropped a number of points. Today was almost that time again.”
However, Sunday’s match was a step forward compared to the matches between Stuttgart and Berlin. Because in addition to the obvious superiority in terms of play, there was also a certain decision this time – at least in the first half. “We have to talk about the second half again,” said coach Adi Hutter. “The performance was not quite what we showed on Wednesday,” the coach complained, but sees his team on the right track.
Hoffmann is also hoping to get a tailwind for tasks coming from the 5-0 ceremony against Bayern: “Of course you don’t run such a perfect match almost every week. But that is the level we strive to achieve in the long term. Wednesday’s match can give a tailwind. It showed what we were made of.”
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