Next year Borussia Mönchengladbach will be 125 years old. It is uncertain whether the traditional club from the Lower Rhine will then play in the Bundesliga. The situation at Borussia Park has become more threatening due to a poor and even lucky 0-0 draw on Sunday in the basement duel with Union Berlin. After only one win from the last eight Bundesliga games and no home win for two months, Gladbach is gradually getting close to the dangerous relegation place. The lead over third-to-last Mainz 05 is only four points. Union is doing even worse. The Berliners have only won one of their last nine Bundesliga games and are only two points ahead of Mainz.
In Gladbach they are not fooling themselves three match days before the end of the season. “We are in a relegation battle, that’s clear,” said central defender Marvin Friedrich after the game. “You can tell the pressure on the team,” explained sports director Nils Schmadtke. The most recent top scorer, Robin Hack, remained without a goal and without a pressing chance in the midst of an overall disappointing offensive. But he found: “The intensity was right for us – the courage was missing in certain situations.” You have to keep a clear head in the next games. “Then I’m confident.”
The Gladbachers, who were even more concerned about safety on Sunday without their defensive stabilizers Julian Weigl (suspended) and Maximilian Wöber (injured), were lucky four times: Berlin’s Kevin Volland only hit the aluminum twice (25th and 62nd minute), his colleague Lucas Tousart shot narrowly past the Borussia goal (53′) and substitute Andras Schäfer hit a ball over the half-empty goal (73′). If the capital city team had shot just a little more precisely, Gladbach would probably have left the pitch as losers and would have been in an even worse starting situation for the final three games in Bremen, against Frankfurt and in Stuttgart.
Union misses many chances in Mönchengladbach
Meanwhile, the Berliners mourned their chances. “We had the bigger things and could have won it,” said Volland, “but we’re happy to take the point – we definitely want to stay in the league.” What seemed most important to them was not to have lost. “We played a decent game,” said Union captain Rani Khedira, “we were stable and that’s what counts in the relegation battle.”
The Gladbachers may not even be fully aware of what counts in the relegation battle, as they probably didn’t expect to end up in the tabular morass again a few weeks ago. “It was clear to the team that the overall situation had an impact on their mental performance,” said coach Gerardo Seoane about Sunday’s performance. He complained about a “lack of courage” and “many security passes.” He called the situation “acute.” But it is “for all the teams down in the table”. Seoane has a pale demand for his team: “We have to be able to handle this situation.”
That’s asking a lot, because the fear of staying in the league hits Gladbach almost unexpectedly. Something like this is particularly dangerous. At the general meeting last Monday, sports director Roland Virkus warned: “We need appreciation in the club for playing stably in the Bundesliga.” That sounded like a rebuke to all those fans who had raved about the Europa League or Conference League before this season. Gladbach’s dreamers find themselves increasingly dangerously close to the edge of the second division.