Borussia kick off Bundesliga season with 3-1 win over Hoffenheim!

The Foals have kicked off the new Bundesliga season with a 3-1 win over TSG Hoffenheim. Around 50,000 fans at BORUSSIA-PARK saw how goals from Ramy Bensebaini, Marcus Thuram and Nico Elvedi helped complete a come-from-behind victory against ten men, marking a successful first home game in charge for Daniel Farke.

The defences were on top in the opening exchanges in Mönchengladbach and Robert Skov’s speculative strike from 30 yards after eleven minutes did nothing to change that. The intensity began to rise following a first yellow card of the game shown to Joe Scally (13’) and Hoffenheim responded with some crunching challenges of their own. Unfortunately for the visitors, Stefan Posch was twice the perpetrator in quick succession, picking up bookings for late tackles on Flo Neuhaus and then Ramy Bensebaini, earning himself an early bath (19’).

The visitors weren’t particularly fazed by going down to ten men and continued to pose a threat from counterattacks, clinically taking the lead in the 25th minute. Robert Skov’s overlapping run into the box was spotted by Andrej Kramaric and Yann Sommer was unable to get anything on his powerful shot. Borussia looked to respond quickly, but TSG were virtually camping inside their box towards the end of the half. It took a set-piece for Farke’s side to get back level, although it was a spectacular goal – Ko Itakura’s header back across the six-yard box was met with a bicycle kick from Bensebaini to make it 1-1 shortly before half time (42’).

With their man advantage, Gladbach were able to enjoy possession in the second half as Hoffenheim waited for moments to pounce. Kramaric blew a huge opportunity to restore TSG’s advantage shortly after the restart and down the other end Joe Scally saw his shot deflected onto the bar by Oliver Baumann (49’). It wasn’t to be the Germany goalkeeper’s last quality save either, also getting fingertips onto a low, curling shot from Alassane Plea at full stretch (63’).

Gaps were hard to find for the Foals, but their patience paid off as Hoffenheim tired in the final 20 minutes. Plea’s perfectly weighted through ball was fired home by birthday boy Thuram to complete the turnaround (71’), and the contest was ago just seven minutes later. Plea was involved again, dinking a ball over the defence and into the path of Nico Elvedi, who had time to take it down and finish past Baumann at the near post to secure a season-opening 3-1 win for Borussia.

TEAM NEWS

Daniel Farke made two changes to the side that started against SV Oberachern in the DFB-Pokal. Yann Sommer and Manu Koné missed out last weekend, but they were back fit for the visit of Hoffenheim and replaced Moritz Nicolas and the injured Lars Stindl in the line-up. That meant Florian Neuhaus took up a more advanced midfield position alongside Alassane Plea and Jonas Hofmann, supporting lone striker Marcus Thuram. Christoph Kramer was paired alongside Koné in holding midfield, with a back-four of Joe Scally, Ko Itakura, Nico Elvedi and Ramy Bensebaini protecting Sommer.

Jordan Beyer and Hannes Wolf were back in the squad after recovering from injury problems, but there was no place for Lars Stindl (fascia injury), Luca Netz (ill) and Marvin Friedrich (returning to fitness).

MATCH FACTS

Borussia: Sommer – Scally (84’ Lainer), Itakura, Elvedi, Bensebaini – Koné, Kramer – Plea, Neuhaus, Hofmann (89’ Herrmann) – Thuram

Hoffenheim: Baumann – Posch, Vogt, Kabak – Kaderabek (64’ Akpoguma), Samassekou (24’ Nsoki), Skov – Prömel, Baumgartner (80’ Damar) – Rutter (64’ Bruun Larsen), Kramaric (80’ Rudy)

Goals: 0-1 Skov (25’), 1-1 Bensebaini (42’), 2-1 Thuram (71’), 3-1 Elvedi (78’)

Attendance: 49,659

Yellow cards: Scally – Posch Samassekou, Vogt

Red cards: Posch (19‘)

Referee: Daniel Siebert (Berlin)

Daniel Farke made his competitive home debut in the Borussia dugout
Birthday boy Marcus Thuram celebrates putting the Foals 2-1 ahead
Nico Elvedi fired in the Foals's third to wrap up an opening-day win

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