Borussia Mönchengladbach were left to rue missed chances on matchday 8 of the Bundesliga season, conceding late on in a 1-1 home draw with FC Augsburg.
With the final international break of the year out of the way, the Foals welcomed FC Augsburg to BORUSSIA-PARK to kick off the busy run-in to Christmas. Both sides were clearly itching to return to action, with the visitors coming close to opening the scoring after just 20 seconds. Thankfully, Yann Sommer got a leg onto Finnbogason’s shot. Borussia were also full of attacking intent though and managed to find the back of the net with their first chance. Breel Embolo’s shot was spilled by Gikiewicz and the rebound eventually fell to Florian Neuhaus on the edge of the box, who applied a thunderous finish to make it 1-0 inside five minutes. Gladbach were now in control and pegged Augsburg back inside their own half. However, further opportunities failed to produce the second goal, with Patrick Herrmann firing over one-on-one and Embolo missing the target with a free header.
The chances continued to come after the break. Hannes Wolf had a header saved by Gikiewicz in the 51st minute, and the FCA goalkeeper made an even better stop shortly after when Embolo had been put through on goal, tipping the Swiss forward’s shot onto the post. Borussia’s chances of finding the next goal increased with 26 minutes to go, with Framberger shown his second yellow in quick succession to reduce Augsburg to ten men. Despite that, it was the away side who had the next chance and a good save from Sommer was required once more to keep Khedira from levelling the scores. Gikiewicz was continuing to frustrate Borussia at the other end, again saving one-on-one from Breel Embolo, but the ball dropped back at his feet. Even with the keeper taken out of the equation though, the angle was against him this time and Embolo could only direct the rebound into the side netting. As has often been the case at home this season, those missed chances would end up being rued. A half clearance was volleyed straight back at goal by Caligiuri in the 89th minute, with a deflection making it virtually unsaveable for Sommer.
TEAM NEWS
Marco Rose made three changes to the side that were in the starting XI against Leverkusen prior to the international break – Ramy Bensebaini (Covid-19), Jonas Hofmann (torn hamstring) and Marcus Thuram made way for Oscar Wendt, Patrick Herrmann and Hannes Wolf to start. Denis Zakaria was also back in the squad for the first time this season following his knee injury, coming on for a late cameo. The boss was not only without Bensebaini and Hofmann for the match, with Alassane Plea also testing positive for coronavirus last weekend.
MATCH FACTS
Borussia: Sommer - Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Wendt – Kramer, Neuhaus (89’ Zakaria) – Herrmann (67’ Lazaro), Stindl (78’ Thuram), Wolf – Embolo
Union: Gikiewicz – Gumny (54’ Framberger), Gouweleeuw, Uduokhai, Iago – Strobl, Khedira, Caligiuri, Vargas (82’ Richter) – Finnbogason (65’ Hahn), Niederlechner (65’ Gregoritsch)
Goals: 1-0 Neuhaus (5’), 1-1 Caligiuri (89’)
Red cards: Framberger (66’)
Yellow cards: Thuram – Khedira, Gouweleeuw, Framberger
Referee: Markus Schmidt (Stuttgart)
Attendance: 0
