Foals boast successful opening day record at home

Gladbach have lost just one match at the BORUSSIA-PARK on the first matchday of the Bundesliga season. The first and only time the side met Hoffenheim on the opening day in 2012, the Foals came out with a 2-1 victory.

Borussia will get their 55th Bundesliga campaign underway on Saturday, with this weekend’s fixture marking the 30th time the Foals have played their first game in a top-division campaign at home. Gladbach have won 13 of these matches so far, with nine draws and seven losses, with the record at BORUSSIA-PARK being even better - a 3-1 loss to Stuttgart in 2008 being the only blot on Gladbach’s opening day record at the current ground.

The Foals’ home opening day wins have come against Energie Cottbus (2-0, 2006/07 season), Hoffenheim, (2-1, 2011/12), Bayer Leverkusen (2-1, 2016/17), Köln (1-0, 2017/18) and again Leverkusen (2-0, 2018/19). The four draws came against Nürnberg (1-1, 2010/11), Stuttgart (1-1, 2014/15), Schalke (0-0, 2018/19) and most recently Bayern München (1-1, 2021/22).

Arango’s match-winner against Hoffenheim

25th August, 2012 was the only time the two sides going head-to-head on Saturday met on the first day of a Bundesliga season. Gladbach, who were managed by Lucien Favre at the time, came out on top, winning 2-1 – and the Foals had the set-piece ability of Juan Arango (Photo: Wiechmann) to thank, who was named man of the match for providing a goal and assist – each following a dead ball.

The Venezuelan whipped in a cross in the 33rd minute which was duly headed in by Mike Hanke. The visitors, however, got level 20 minutes after the interval: Erin Derdiyok’s effort was parried away by Marc-André ter Stegen, but he could not do anything to stop Roberto Firmino converting the rebound. The Foals hit back quickly – after a foul on the edge of the Hoffenheim area, Arango beautifully found the top right corner from a free-kick, leaving goalkeeper Tim Wiese wrong-footed, and a crowd of 50,146 at the Borussia-Park in jubilation.