“Hütter out! Hütter out!”, An angry rang out through Borussia-Park. But it was not the fans of Borussia Mönchengladbach who called for the separation from the coach. It was the approximately 300 Eintracht Frankfurt fans who had traveled with them who roared. They still take their previous coach’s move to Mönchengladbach worse than the Gladbach fans their new coach’s fourth defeat in a row on Wednesday evening with a total of 17 goals conceded.
In this respect, the Gladbach 2: 3 (1: 1) defeat against Frankfurt seemed perhaps even halfway bearable for Adi Hütter. After the final whistle, he smiled and chatted with his former Frankfurt players. Not that the defeat wasn’t painful, but the house blessing at Borussia-Park isn’t completely wrong, at least for the fans.
The audience fell silent when the defeat was determined. Of course, the players hung their heads, and presumably everyone in the Niederrhein region is now finally worrying about their Borussia, which is getting closer and closer to the second division. If the team continues to play like this, they are in great danger, while everyone continues to assert that the quality of this team is far too good for a mishap called relegation. When the players stepped in front of the stands after the final whistle, they received comforting applause from the fans.
“Now it’s getting uncomfortable,” said the substitute midfielder Christoph Kramer, who played again for the first time in two and a half months, about the tabular situation. “Everyone knows how fast it can go in football,” he said, but meant this not only as a warning, but also as an expression of hope: “Maybe we will knock on the European Cup again in a few weeks.”
“The bare numbers speak for themselves,” admits coach Hütter
Hütter had instructed his players to bring the necessary “virtues” onto the pitch, that is, forms of expression of struggle and passion. But his recognizably insecure players didn’t seem really expressive this time either. Fate gave them a chance early on: After six minutes, Florian Neuhaus was allowed to shoot in undisturbed from the edge of the box to make it 1-0. Gladbach’s national player, most recently only a stand-by player, was allowed to play from the start because Lars Stindl was yellow-banned and Jonas Hofmann was absent after a knee operation.
Another shock for Matthias Ginter and Yann Sommer from Gladbach: Daichi Kamada (left) scores 3-2 for Frankfurt – Borussia’s 17th goal in the last four league games.
(Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa)
The Borussia then failed to score the second goal, which got its revenge when Rafael Borré scored 1: 1 with the half-time whistle and out of the blue. Denis Zakaria, who played as a central defender and replaced the ailing Nico Elvedi, had previously got dribbled.
It was only through the unexpected hit that the Frankfurters realized how easy it is to score against these Gladbach goals. So they did. Jesper Lindström in the 50th minute and Daichi Kamada in the 55th minute quickly scored the second and third goals. In the small time window in between, Frankfurt’s Danny da Costa owed a penalty to Gladbach’s Kouadio Koné, which Ramy Bensebaini scored 2-2 in the 54th minute. Borussia ran for the remaining 35 minutes, from the 70th minute even with a man outnumbered, because Frankfurt’s Tuta saw yellow-red. They seemed close to the compensation that would have been deserved, but they couldn’t make it anymore. “After a sensible first half, the second was incredibly wild again,” complained midfielder Kramer.
While Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner attested his team “great morals, great will and a great heart” after the fifth win within six league games, Hütter was not satisfied with the performance, but understandably not with the result. “The team fought passionately and tried everything in the back,” said Hütter. In the first half they missed a second goal and the 1-1 draw before the break brought them into trouble. “For me it is an undeserved defeat,” complained Hütter.
When asked about a threatening scenario such as the fight against relegation, he replied that one had to deal with it: “The bare numbers speak a clear language, and we do not play with full confidence.” After the game in Hoffenheim next Saturday, an uncomfortable Christmas threatens on the Lower Rhine.