Borussia earned their first win of the season on the sixth Bundesliga matchday, running out 3-1 victors at VfL Bochum. Florian Neuhaus and a double from Alassane Plea did the job for the Foals in the first half.
In front of 26,000 spectators at a sold-out Vonovia Ruhrstadion in Bochum, both teams played with a high tempo and a competitive spirit, which led to lots of chances for both sides. As the game went on, the Foals started to control the game more and began to create more chances by the minute. Florian Neuhaus took one of these to give Borussia a deserved lead after just half an hour. Exactly ten minutes later, Alassane Plea extended the lead with his 50th competitive goal for the Foals to make it 2-0, before he finished off a perfect counterattack and therefore scored the third goal of the day. After the break, it was initially a similar story: The Foals were controlling the match and creating a whole host of big chances. In the middle of the second half, the hosts improved and reduced the deficit to 3-1 through Anthony Losilla. Buoyed by this goal, Bochum began to create more goalscoring chances, but the Foals threw themselves unselfishly at everything and brought the three points home in the end.
TEAM NEWS
Borussia head coach Gerardo Seoane made two changes to his starting eleven from the home game against RB Leipzig, with Florian Neuhaus and Alassane Plea replacing Manu Koné and Joe Scally. Moritz Nicolas was in goal for the Foals once again. The back three was made up of birthday boy Nico Elvedi, Ko Itakura and Max Wöber. The wing-backs were Franck Honorat on the right and Luca Netz on the left. Julian Weigl, Florian Neuhaus and Rocco Reitz ran the midfield, while Alassane Plea and Jordan made up the frontline.
Borussia were only missing goalkeeper Jonas Omlin (shoulder operation) due to injury.
FIRST-HALF HIGHLIGHTS
2’: First big chance for the Foals: Honorat drives forward with the ball on the right-wing and his shot hits the post.
3’: The next chance for Borussia comes almost immediately after; this time it’s Plea who is played through on goal, but his shot is blocked.
9’: After being brought on early in the game, Antwi-Adjei has the hosts’ first shot, but it’s an easy enough save for Nicolas.
10’: Another great move from Borussia, conducted by Wöber and Neuhaus, ends with Plea shooting just wide of the near post.
18’: Plea has a go from distance and his effort is deflected onto the top of the crossbar.
23’: Honorat is played in again down the right and drags his shot just wide of the far post.
27’: The Foals have lift-off! Plea pulls the ball back to Neuhaus, who calmly slots it home into the bottom left for his second goal of the season to give Gladbach a well-deserved lead.
37’: Plea doubles Borussia’s lead, nodding the ball home from close-range for his 50th competitive goal for the Foals, following a clever corner routine from Honorat and Wöber.
45’+3: Plea with a brace! The Frenchman leads the counter-attack down the left, cuts inside and curls a sumptuous shot into the bottom-right corner to put Gladbach 3-0 up in some style.
SECOND-HALF HIGHLIGHTS
52’: A triple chance for Borussia! Plea drives with the ball to the edge of the box and his shot forces Riemann into a good save. The ball then falls to Neuhaus, whose effort is blocked by Gamboa and lands back at the number 10’s feet, only for him to shoot over from close-range.
57’: Netz shoots straight at Riemann from the edge of the area. His follow-up goes over the bar.
70’: The hosts reduce the deficit. Daschner plays the ball to Bochum captain Losilla in the penalty area, and he gets to the ball before Itakura and finishes well for 3-1.
71’: Two quickfire chances for Bochum. Firstly, the Foals clear Hofmann’s shot off the line, before Antwi-Adjei’s curler flies over Nicolas’ goal.
90+1’: Čvančara gets his head to Honorat’s cross, but Riemann saves brilliantly.
90+5’: Bochum think they’ve made it 3-2 through Losilla, but the goal is ruled out for a foul on Nicolas in the build-up.
STATISTICS
Bochum: Riemann - Masovic, Ordets, Bernardo – Passlack (Gamboa 46’), Losilla, Stöger (Daschner 46’), Wittek (P. Förster 46’), Bero (Antwi-Adjei 7’) - P. Hofmann, Asano (Paciencia 67’) // Unused substitutes: Thiede, Danilo Soares, K. Schlotterbeck, Osterhage
Borussia: Nicolas, Elvedi (Friedrich 65’), Itakura, Wöber, Honorat, Netz, Weigl, Neuhaus (Kramer 71’), Reitz (Jantschke 89’), Plea (Scally 71’), Jordan (Čvančara 65’) // Unused substitutes: Olschowsky, Koné, Ngoumou, Kramer, Hack
Goals: 0-1 Neuhaus (27’), 0-2 Plea (37’), 0-3 Plea (45+3’), 1-3 Losilla (68’)
Yellow cards: Bernardo /Itakura, Kramer
Attendance: 26,000 (sold-out)
Referee: Dr. Felix Brych (Munich)
