BVB suffer a late 1-0 defeat in Gladbach

BVB suffer a late 1-0 defeat in Gladbach Personnel matters The two 18-year-old youngsters, Luca Reggiani (replacing the injured Ramy Bensebaini) and Samuele Inacio,started the match. Karim Adeyemi, Emre Can, Felix Nmecha and Niklas Süle were all unavailable. Match report The BVB coach arrived half an hour late , and the match therefore kicked off ten minutes later than planned.

In the early stages, Gladbach repeatedly attacked down the flanks with pace, whilst the Black & Yellows initially took on a more measured approach, albeit lacking much in the way of incisiveness. Both sides lined up in a 3-4-2-1 formation, with a striker positioned on each of the two wingers: Franck Honorat and Maxi Beier found themselves locked in several one-on-one duels. In a fiercely contested match, Elvedi put the ball into the back of the net from an offside position following a delivery from a free-kick (25), and shortly afterwards, Kobel saved a shot from Tabakovic, who had found space to shoot from close range (32).

During this phase, Gladbach (five shots on goal compared to zero for BVB) were much closer to opening the scoring. BVB were left chasing after the ball, and when they managed to win it, would soon give it away too quickly. It was only as the one-minute of stoppage time was drawing to a close that the Black & Yellows had their first shot on goal, courtesy of Inacio.

Tabakovic could have put Gladbach ahead two minutes after the restart following a cross, but he was thwarted by Reggiani at the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Beier was forced to play too much defence against Honorat (Svensson replaced him after an hour), while Guirassy was left stranded up front. A solo run by Brandt created the first real spark for BVB in the second half (52).