Tietz and Engels meet

©IMAGO

A bitter setback on a sporting level, but a return rich in emotions: Borussia Mönchengladbach experienced extremely mixed feelings at the end of the start of the second part of the season in the Bundesliga. Due to the undeserved 1:2 (1:0) home defeat against FC Augsburg, Borussia missed the jump to a single-digit place in the rankings. The fact that many Borussia fans left the stadium with a good feeling is due to the return of Stefan Lainer, who played for the first time around 20 minutes in the Bundesliga 178 days after his cancer diagnosis was made public.

Jordan, who had already scored in the 3-1 win over VfB Stuttgart the previous week, put Borussia, who had previously been unbeaten in eight competitive home matches, ahead with his fourth goal of the season (26th). minute). Phillip Tietz (47′) and Arne Engels (51′) turned things around with a double strike just after the break. With their first victory in Gladbach in almost nine years, the Augsburg team ended a lull of just one point in four matches and are, with 21 points, closer to a place in the European Cup than a relegation place. This also applies to Gladbach, but Borussia has slipped to twelfth place.

At 5:25 p.m., for the first time, there was loud cheering at Borussia Park: Lainer’s name was read out. During the summer preparation, the Austrian right-back was diagnosed with lymph node cancer. He returned to training in November and has now returned to competition. “Of course, everyone is delighted and very happy, especially for him and his family, who have gone through a difficult time,” Borussia coach Gerardo Seoane said before the match on DAZN.

The visitors from Augsburg took control of the match and had three good chances to take the lead in just under three minutes. Marvin Friedrich first blocked a shot from Ermedin Demirovic in the goal left by goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas after a clearance (10th), then Nico Elvedi deflected a shot from Fredrik Jensen (11th) next to the goal after a bad pass by Joe Scally, Finally, Nicolas saved a nice header from Ruben Vargas (12th).

Augsburg’s enthusiasm was halted by the usual toss of chocolate coins this weekend in protest against the DFL’s investor plan and the two resulting interruptions. First the game was stopped for almost six minutes, only a minute after the restart chocolate pieces flew out of the Gladbach fans’ block again and referee Martin Petersen interrupted it for another four minutes.

And then the goal fell on the other side: after a corner, FCA goalkeeper Finn Dahmen sailed under the ball, Alassane Plea crossed, Jordan’s header was blocked by Augsburg captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, but the American international pushed the rebound over the line.
The match remained balanced until the break, but Augsburg came out of the locker room very strong. First, Tietz ended his goal drought that had lasted since early November with a header from a Kevin Mbabu cross, then Engels scored from twelve meters with a well-placed left-(Site notre bureau spécialisé)ed shot. Shortly after, Vargas even missed the preliminary decision (54th).

Things got really loud at 7:06 p.m. But not because of the equalizer, but because of the replacement of Lainer, for which almost all of the 44,867 spectators got up from their seats.

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