Perhaps the question was pointless as to whether Matthias Ginter would have cut a better figure in the two goals conceded after dead balls and possibly prevented them. The longtime defense chief did not play in Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 1:2 (0:0) defeat against Bayer Leverkusen. The national defender sat on the bench the whole game and had to watch idly as Gladbach lost, although goalkeeper Yann Sommer first fished a penalty from Patrik Schick out of the left corner and then one from Kerem Demirbay out of the corner on the right . Two goals conceded from standard situations cost Borussia the first home game of the second half of the season against Leverkusen a week after their first win in Munich. Gladbach remains in acute danger of relegation.
Gladbach coach Adi Hütter was annoyed after the game when he was asked why Ginter, who was not renewing his contract that expired at the end of the season, was not allowed to play. “It was clear that this barrel would be opened now,” he said angrily at Sky, before explaining slightly offended: “We’ve conceded 17 goals in four games with Matze, and nobody asked about him after that; It’s my decision and we have to get out of this situation with or without Matthias Ginter.”
In the previous four and a half years, Ginter had never sat on the substitutes’ bench at the start of a Borussia Mönchengladbach Bundesliga game. He had been injured twelve times since moving from Borussia Dortmund to Mönchengladbach in the summer of 2017, he had been in the squad 142 times – and 142 times in the starting XI. But on Saturday evening Ginter sat on the bench for the first time. “We’re going our separate ways in the summer,” Hütter said shortly before the kick-off on Sky when asked why Ginter wasn’t playing and why instead of him the very fresh access Marvin Friedrich, who came from Union Berlin at the beginning of the week, the right defender was allowed to give in the three-man defense chain. “He’s in the juice and will continue to play for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the future,” said Hütter about Friedrich.
On the way to the right corner: Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer (left) takes a shot from Patrik Schick.
(Photo: Revierfoto/Imago)
From this it became clear: Hütter prefers to rely on Friedrich from now on. But perhaps Gladbach also wants to signal to his long-standing best central defender Ginter that he should convince his future club – which is said to be Inter Milan – to make a move as early as January. Ginter wants to appear for the German team at the World Cup in Qatar, which begins in November. A second half of the season on the bench would be of little help. A transfer in winter would also bring Gladbach a small fee and save Ginter’s salary. “Ginder im Winder zu Inder”, Franconian Lothar Matthäus joked as an expert into the Sky microphone and earned an appreciative nod from Gladbach’s sports director. Max Eberl called the decision against Ginter and for Friedrich: “A sporting decision.” You don’t have a “smack” with Ginter.
Hütter emphasizes that the door for Ginter is not closed
The two French strikers, Alassane Plea and Marcus Thuram, who were both candidates for a change next summer, were only on the bench when the game started. Swiss midfielder Denis Zakaria was absent ill. Gladbach played with a future eleven, which will probably only become the really necessary present in the coming season. But Hütter is already creating facts and offered a starting eleven with lots of players who are likely to play for Gladbach beyond the current season.
After a meager first 50 minutes, it was Marvin Friedrich of all people who brought down Leverkusen’s Karim Bellarabi in his own penalty area. You shouldn’t have called it a foul, but referee Sascha Stegemann did it anyway. This gave Leverkusen center forward Patrik Schick a good chance to score unhindered from eleven yards, but Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer skillfully deflected the powerful shot around the post. But just seconds later, after Florian Wirtz had taken the subsequent corner into the penalty area, Leverkusen’s Robert Andrich shot in in the 51st minute to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The Gladbachers are struggling with defending standards this season. The last proof of this came in the 74th minute when Schick scored the 2-0 for Leverkusen with his 18th goal of the season after a free kick by Kerem Demirbay and probably with the help of the unlucky defending Friedrich. Nico Elvedi was only able to reduce Gladbach’s lead to 1:2 in the 81st minute, and even after Sommer had saved a second penalty in the 87th minute, this time from Demirbay after Jordan Louis Beyer fouled Florian Wirtz, he still managed to score Gladbachers no longer equalize.
The door for Ginter was not closed, Hütter emphasized in the evening. And he could also play together with Friedrich. Whether Hütter implements this will be shown in the cup game at Hannover 96 on Wednesday.