Matchday 28 in the Bundesliga saw Borussia Mönchengladbach draw 2-2 with Hertha BSC, although the Foals had to play almost 80 minutes with ten men after Yann Sommer’s early red card.
A rollercoaster first half at the Olympiastadion started with an early setback for the Foals. Goalkeeper Yann Sommer was sent off inside quarter of an hour having brought down Jhon Cordoba after charging out of his box. Tobias Sippel took his place in goal with Oscar Wendt sacrificed, but the new man between the sticks could do nothing to prevent Santiago Ascacibar picking out the very top corner to open the scoring (23’). Despite the challenge presented, Borussia were unfazed and the ten men turned the game on its head before the break. Alassane Plea grabbed his first Bundesliga goal since late January, racing onto Marcus Thuram’s through ball and firing across Alexander Schwolow to level the scores (27’). The scoresheet soon bore the familiar name of Lars Stindl too, with the captain coolly converting a penalty won by Thuram to net his 12th league goal of the campaign (38’).
Hertha turned to their bench at the interval and were much more in control in the second half, finding an equaliser just four minutes after the restart when Cordoba connected with Matheus Cunha’s delivery into the six-yard box. The hosts continued to dictate the play in the capital, albeit without really causing serious problems for Sippel in the Gladbach goal. The back-up goalkeeper was able to tip a powerful long-range effort from Matteo Guendouzi over the top (60’), and was in place to gather a central shot from Cunha a few minutes from the end. Borussia only got into dangerous positions a couple of times, with perhaps the best moment again involving Thuram, who felt he was dragged down in the box as he tried to control the ball. The referee disagreed though and VAR didn’t intervene (72’). Florian Neuhaus had the Foals’ last effort of the game, but he couldn‘t keep his 85th-minute strike down and so the spoils were shared in Berlin.
TEAM NEWS
There were two changes to the starting line-up compared to last week’s win over Freiburg. Ramy Bensebaini returned from suspension and replaced Jordan Beyer in defence, while Denis Zakaria took over from Hannes Wolf akin to the half-time change against SCF.
Marco Rose remained without Nico Elvedi (calf) and Jonas Hofmann (coronavirus), with both likely to be back in contention again next week, while Torben Müsel and Julio Villalba are still sidelined.
MATCH FACTS
Hertha: Schwolow – Klünter, Stark, Dardai – Zeefuik (46’ Radonjic), Ascacibar (57’ Khedira), Guendouzi, Mittelstädt (46’ Plattenhardt), Lukebakio (46’ Piatek), Cunha – Cordoba
Borussia: Sommer – Ginter, Zakaria, Bensebaini (77’ Herrmann) – Lainer, Wendt (17’ Sippel) – Kramer, Neuhaus – Stindl (60’ Lazaro), Plea, Thuram (77’ Embolo)
Goals: 1-0 Ascacibar (23’), 1-1 Plea (27’), 1-2 Stindl (38’, pen.), 2-2 Cordoba (49’)
Yellow cards: Zeefuik, Mittelstädt – Kramer
Red cards: Sommer (14’)
Referee: Patrick Ittrich (Hamburg)
Attendance: 0
