Wherever Borussia Mönchengladbach plays, there is always something going on at the moment. After the 1: 5 at Werder Bremen and the 5: 2 against 1. FC Köln, this time it was only enough for a 2: 2 (1: 1) at VfL Wolfsburg despite leading twice.
As a result, Daniel Farke's team failed to improve their place in the Champions League for at least one day. Frenchman Marcus Thuram gave Borussia the lead twice in the 13th and 47th minutes. VfL equalized twice with Yannick Gerhardt (43') and Omar Marmoush (69'). That was deserved because Wolfsburg missed half a dozen more chances in front of 26,701 spectators.
The 28-year-old Gerhardt missed the first two months of the season due to a knee injury. Since his comeback two weeks ago, however, the midfielder has already scored the late winning goal against VfB Stuttgart (3-2) and the Wolfsburg goal in the 1-1 draw in Augsburg. According to his own statements, he was particularly looking forward to the game against Borussia because he was trained at 1. FC Köln and even in his youth he "always experienced explosive games" against the Rhenish rivals.
VfL coach Kovac celebrates his birthday
On Niko Kovac's 51st birthday, VfL made every effort to confirm the latest impressions of their new coach. At the beginning of the season it was still a big shortcoming that the "Wolves" didn't create enough chances. But now they leave too many of them unused. That's exactly what Kovac complained about at his press conference on Friday.
Against Gladbach, Gerhardt could have given VfL the lead in the 9th minute. Shortly before the well-deserved equalizer, it even got grotesque: First, Jakub Kaminski shot the ball at an angle in front of the empty goal and only hit the outside of the post (37th). Then Ridle Baku put Gerhardt in a good shooting position again, but he missed the ball in the penalty area (40').
Efficiency was exactly the quality that the Gladbachers had ahead of the "wolves" that day. In the second half, too, Thuram took advantage of the first opportunity to take the lead again after a corner kick from Jonas Hofmann.
Despite the disappointing starting balance of ten points after ten matchdays, this speaks for a certain Wolfsburg development in recent weeks: Kovac's team continues to defend itself after such setbacks and now has the physical qualities again to do so up to the last minute .
In the 64th minute, substitute Marmoush missed the goal in front of the Gladbach goal. Just five minutes later, the Egyptian scored from the turn, which is worth seeing.
In the end there was even more in it for VfL: But Kevin Paredes failed first after a nice pass by Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer (87th). And shortly thereafter, Marmoush hit the crossbar with a header (88th).
