Gladbach turns the game almost entirely
Hertha also loses with a fifth goalkeeper
2/26/2022, 5:32 p.m
Hertha BSC cannot stop the bad trend: At SC Freiburg, the Bundesliga soccer club has to compete with the fifth goalkeeper, shows a committed performance – and still goes under. A similar fate threatens Borussia Mönchengladbach, but then everything turns out differently.
Borussia Monchengladbach – VfL Wolfsburg 2: 2 (1: 2)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen – Arminia Bielefeld 3: 0 (1: 0)
Even without top scorer Patrik Schick, Bayer Leverkusen is well on the way to the Champions League. Schick representative Lucas Alario paved the way for the fifth win in the seventh game of the year for the third-placed team, who also won for the first time since mid-November, in a never-threatening 3-0 (1-0) against relegation candidate Arminia Bielefeld remained clean sheet. Bayer had failed to qualify for the premier class four times in the past five years. Schick, with 20 goals the second best league goalscorer after Bayern star Robert Lewandowski, will be absent for a few weeks due to a torn muscle fiber in his calf, according to the club. For the Argentinian Alario, who wants to leave Bayer at the end of the season, it was only the third goal of the season. Moussa Diaby, who added a brace (56/81), scored seven times in the last five games alone. The table-14. After just one defeat in eight games, Bielefeld once again suffered a setback.
A nice picture before kick-off: During the minute’s silence, both teams mixed in the kick-off circle and actually commemorated the victims in Ukraine together. For reasons of piety, Bayer refrained from playing carnival music in advance on the Saturday of the carnival. Leverkusen’s coach Gerardo Seoane had replaced almost half the starting eleven after the 2: 3 in Mainz last week and brought in five new ones. Only the change from Alario to Schick was inevitable.
The guests from East Westphalia, who celebrated their first victory under coach Frank Kramer with a 2-0 win last March, started surprisingly bravely and aggressively – and were almost immediately punished. A full 100 seconds were played when Paulinho ran alone from the halfway line towards the Arminia goal, but was cleverly pushed aside by Stefan Ortega and frittered away. You could tell that the actually very agile Brazilian, who had only been in the starting XI once since the beginning of November, had a lack of match practice. In the 24th minute, Paulinho almost forgot about this with a spectacular back-heel goal, but that too was prevented by the safe Ortega.
Another six minutes later, Paulinho was the provider of the opener, albeit happy. He shot himself against the hand on a direct acceptance, Alario slotted the ball in and the goal passed the video review. After the well-deserved lead at the break, Leverkusen remained dominant in the second half, but needed a long time to catch up. Alario was offside when he thought he scored the second goal (48′), a shot by Jonathan Tah in his 200th Bundesliga game was blocked by Joakim Nilsson (55′). And then the 2-0 came through Diaby, who energetically prevailed after a one-two with Florian Wirtz, who was again enthusiastic to play. And the in-form French even followed suit.
SC Freiburg – Hertha BSC 3: 0 (1: 0)
1. FC Union Berlin – 1. FSV Mainz 05 3: 1 (1: 0)
1. FC Union Berlin has shaken off its Max Kruse complex. After three defeats without scoring their own goal, the Irons achieved their first success since the noisy departure of their prominent attacker with a 3-1 (1-0) win over 1. FSV Mainz 05. Genki Haraguchi (7th minute), Sheraldo Becker (56th) and Taiwo Awonyi (75th) scored the goals for the Berliners in front of 10,000 spectators. Delano Burgzorg only scored for Mainz in the 90th minute.
Coach Urs Fischer’s team not only overtook Mainz, who had been defeated for the first time in three games, in the Bundesliga table, but also made an impressive comeback in the race for another place in the European Cup. On Tuesday, Union will face FC St. Pauli in the quarter-finals of the cup before they meet Kruse again at VfL Wolfsburg next Saturday. As in the first leg, Dominik Kohr (60th) was sent off for Mainz with a yellow-red card.
Haraguchi was part of the quintet that coach Urs Fischer called into the starting XI. And the Japanese delivered early with his first league goal for the irons. 283 minutes without a goal were over for Union, so the two minutes that referee Bastian Dankert needed on the video screen to rule out Grischa Prömel being offside could also be endured.
The leadership fit into the classic Union concept. Mainz was allowed to come, the Berliners relied on switching moments from the compact defensive organized by returnee Robin Knoche. Since this tactic against the astonishingly unimaginative Mainz team worked for the hosts in moving backwards, the consequence for both sides up to the half-time break was: no more chances to score.
Fischer may have reminded his team that you can definitely do more when it comes to playing. Union now came out of the cabin with offensive pressure and quickly rewarded themselves again. Becker circled the ball artfully and powerfully from a good 20 meters on the chanceless hundredweight into the goal. Shortly afterwards, Mainz had to continue playing decimated because Kohr, who had been cautioned twice within a few minutes, had to leave the field. Substitute top striker Awoniyi followed up with his first Union goal in 2022, Burgzorg’s goal in the final minute was no longer relevant.
Greuther Furth – 1. FC Cologne 1: 1 (0: 0)
1. FC Köln was also unable to end SpVgg Greuther Fürth’s high at home. Despite a temporary lead, the Rhinelanders had to settle for a lively Bundesliga game with 1:1 (0:0) at the Franks. The Fürth remain bottom of the table with 14 points, but are now unbeaten six times in a row in front of their home crowd. The Cologne team collected their 36th point in their excellent season and can continue to dream of Europe.
With a seemingly harmless cross, Florian Kainz put coach Steffen Baumgart’s team ahead in the 52nd minute. In front of a sold-out crowd of 9,200 spectators under Corona conditions, Fürth’s Sebastian Griesbeck (69th) equalized with a header. Stefan Leitl did not change his starting XI for the third time in a row. The Franconians started the fast-paced duel with aggressive pressing. Captain Branimir Hrgota (6th) was stopped by Luca Kilian at the last second.
Then the Cologne team around captain Jonas Hector showed their goal threat in his 300th competitive game for the club. Jan Uwe Thielmann and top striker Anthony Modeste (14th), who had returned to the starting eleven, did not try as filigreely as Salih Özcan. After a cross from Mark Uth, his heel shot landed on the crossbar (15th) – it would have been a candidate for “Goal of the Month”. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, both teams sent a signal of solidarity with Ukraine before kick-off. The players from Fürth and Cologne gathered behind a banner in the Ukrainian national colors of yellow and blue and held it up together. «STOP WAR. WE AGAINST WAR,” it read in capital letters.
The Bundesliga game kept its pace, Cologne rewarded themselves after the break. Kainz was not energetically disturbed by Marco Meyerhöfer on the right side of Fürth, his cross sailed into the penalty area and then to goalkeeper Andreas Linde without further contact.
The Fürth held against it. Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe made a save from close range against substitute Havard Nielsen (58′). The agile Jamie Leweling (67th) later aimed too far over the goal. After a corner from Luca Itter, central defender Griesbeck, who took Modeste almost completely out of the game, headed in for the acclaimed equaliser. The big wake-up call was not the 1-1 for the home side, there were no compelling offensive actions. Cologne’s Louis Schaub (82′) was too imprecise on the other side with his left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area.