Borussia Mönchengladbach were in fine form on matchday 31 in the Bundesliga, with a Breel Embolo brace and further goals from Marcus Thuram, Ramy Bensebaini and Alassane Plea securing a 5-0 home win over Arminia Bielefeld.
The Foals flew out of the traps at BORUSSIA-PARK and were 3-0 up inside 20 minutes. Breel Embolo opened the scoring with a deflected shot following Stefan Lainer’s pull-back to the edge of the box, before Marcus Thuram doubled the advantage with a first-time finish at the near post from Hannes Wolf’s cross. A third quickly followed when Gebauer handled the ball in the penalty box, and Ramy Bensebaini sent Ortega the wrong way from twelve yards.
Gladbach’s dominant performance continued in the second half, although they had to be patient for goal number four. It was worth the wait, however, with Embolo pulling off consecutive one-twos with three different players to work his way into the area, before applying a cool finish for his brace. Alassane Plea then came off the bench to wrap up the 5-0 win with a trademark curling shot into the bottom corner. It was the Foals’ biggest Bundesliga win since April 2016, and could have been even bigger if not for some top saves from the Bielefeld goalkeeper to deny the likes of Embolo and Wolf. Nevertheless, the three points put Borussia back on track as the Bundesliga takes a short break for next weekend’s DFB-Pokal semi-finals. The Foals return to action in two weeks’ time for a Saturday evening clash with champions-elect FC Bayern Munich.
TEAM NEWS
Marco Rose made four changes to the side beaten by Hoffenheim on Wednesday. Yann Sommer returned from suspension to take his place between the sticks, and was joined on the pitch by Denis Zakaria, Hannes Wolf and Breel Embolo, with Tobias Sippel, Christoph Kramer, Jonas Hofmann and Alassane Plea dropping to the bench.
The Foals remained without captain Lars Stindl (muscle strain), Torben Müsel and Julio Villalba (recovery training), while Mamadou Doucouré tore his Achilles’ tendon in training this week and will be out for the foreseeable future.
MATCH FACTS
Borussia: Sommer – Lainer (85’ Beyer), Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini (85’ Jantschke) – Zakaria, Neuhaus (75’ Kramer) – Lazaro (75’ Wendt), Wolf, Thuram (75’ Plea) – Embolo
Bielefeld: Ortega – de Medina, Pieper, Nilsson, Lucoqui – Prietl, Maier, Okugawa (46’ Kunze), Doan, Gebauer (76’ Schipplock) – Klos (46’ Voglsammer)
Goals: 1-0 Embolo (6’), 2-0 Thuram (15’), 3-0 Bensebaini (18’, pen.), 4-0 Embolo (69’), 5-0 Plea (84’)
Yellow cards: Lazaro – de Medina
Referee: Robert Hartmann (Wangen)
Attendance: 0
