6th matchday
Neuhaus and Plea lead Gladbach to their first win of the season
Alassane Plea (l) scored twice in Gladbach’s victory in Bochum. photo
© David Inderlied/dpa
With the starting eleven returning and goal scorers Plea and Neuhaus, Mönchengladbach gets back into the swing of things and achieves their first win.
First win for new coach Gerardo Seoane, next defeat for him VfL Bochum. Borussia Mönchengladbach stopped the negative run in the duel between teams without a win with a 3-1 (3-0) win at VfL Bochum and achieved the first three points under the new head coach.
The Bochum team, on the other hand, suffered their next painful defeat a week after the 7-0 debacle at FC Bayern Munich and are still waiting for their first win after six games. In front of 26,000 spectators in Bochum’s Ruhr Stadium, Florian Neuhaus (27th) and Alassane Plea (37th and 45th + 3) scored the goals for Gladbach. Anthony Losilla scored for the hosts (68th).
Start is delayed
The start of the 69th West derby in the Bundesliga was initially delayed by ten minutes because fence flags in the away area covered the security gates and had to be hung. The visiting fans were informed that the game would only be kicked off afterwards by referee Felix Brych. The Borussia supporters also caused another short delay in the first half due to pyrotechnics burning out.
The Gladbach team got into action much quicker after kick-off. With the first attack, Franck Honorat caused the greatest danger with a shot against the post. Plea, who was new to the team like Neuhaus, narrowly missed the goal with a shot wide in the 10th minute and hit the crossbar eight minutes later with a deflected shot.
Bochum’s coach Thomas Letsch had hardly changed his team after the depressing defeat in Munich and only appointed center forward Philipp Hofmann to the team. The 30-year-old, who hasn’t scored in almost half a year, should provide more power in the attack. In the first five Bundesliga games, the Reviereleven only scored four goals. But even against Gladbach the offensive remained weak for a long time.
Plea and Neuhaus set the tone
It was completely different for the guests: the new duo in Borussia’s starting line-up caused a lot of danger and goals. The strong Frenchman Plea passed it back to Neuhaus after just under half an hour and he scored his second goal of the season from the edge of the penalty area to make it 1-0. Before the break, Plea finally justified his return to the starting line-up. The 30-year-old first scored his 50th competitive goal for Borussia to make it 2-0, before he made it 3-0 after a counterattack in the first half.
Manuel Riemann in the Bochum goal prevented further goals after the break, first against Jordan Siebatcheu and later against Luca Netz. The hosts tried to exert more pressure with three fresh players in the second half, but were only able to score the next goal through their captain Losilla.