Joe Scally returned to Borussia Monchengladbach’s starting eleven over the weekend in the comfortable win over Julian Green and last place Greuther Furth as the Bundesliga returned to action.
Borussia Mochengladbach 4-0 Greuther Furth
Borussia Monchengladbach had an easy day as they had their way against a struggling Greuther Furth side in a shutout win at Borussia Park.
Joe Scally returned to the starting lineup and played on the left side of a 3-4-2-1 formation, completing 80 percent of his passes and taking one shot on goal. On the other side, Julian Green played the first half and complete 76 percent of his passes, while Timothy Tillman completed 91 percent of his passes as he played the entire second half.
The Foals opened the scoring nine minutes into the contest when Jonas Hofmann ran onto a through-ball from Lars Stindl to slot the ball home.
The hosts were relentless in the attack and had several opportunities to double their lead, with Scally having an excellent shot saved by Greuther Furth goalkeeper Marius Funk. They did go on to double their lead in the 28th minute when Funk’s attempted clearance fell at the feet of Florian Neuhaus who sent the ball into the open goal.
Alassane Plea added a third for ‘Gladbach before halftime when he combined with Stindl for a one-two play before the Frenchman buried the ball into the back of the net.
Hofmann would round out the scoring in the 57th minute as Stindl once again played the ball to him to curl his shot past Funk.
A convincing win for the Foals as they continue their climb up the standings to challenge for a European spot. Meanwhile, Greuther Furth’s struggles continue as they are on course to be relegated back to the 2. Bundesliga.
Borussia Monchengladbach sits in ninth place in the standings with 18 points while Greuther Furth remains in the basement with a single point.
Hoffenheim 2-0 RB Leipzig
Goals in both halves saw Hoffenheim come away with the win over RB Leipzig at PreZero Arena to move them into the top ten of the standings.
Tyler Adams went the distance for Leipzig, completing 92 percent of his passes and winning one aerial battle, while Chris Richards came off the bench for the victors and completed 87 percent of his passes along with winning two aerial battles.
The hosts bagged their first goal from a corner kick after 12 minutes when Diadie Samassekou headed the ball home after Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulasci came off his line and failed to punch the ball out of danger.
Leipzig was almost done in by a second corner kick two minutes later, but Georginio Rutter’s shot went just wide of the mark.
Normally, it would have been the visitors putting pressure on their opponents and launching wave after wave of attacks. However, Hoffenheim showed fearlessness in the first half as they had a plethora of chances to extend their lead.
Hoffenheim’s attacking mentality did not end as they entered the second half and it finally paid off in the 68th minute when Adams was dispossessed of the ball by Munas Dabbur before taking the ball the other way to give his team some daylight.
It was an impressive win for Hoffenheim while Jesse Marsch will be looking to regroup his team before their Champions League game against Club Brugge on Wednesday.
Hoffenheim sits in 10th place in the standings with 17 points while Leipzig drops to seventh with 18 points.
Arminia Bielefeld 2-2 Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg had to dig deep as they came from behind to claim a point in their game against Arminia Bielefeld at the Schuco Arena.
John Brooks played the full 90 minutes and completed 80 percent of his pass while winning five aerial battles.
The Wolves received a shock after 11 minutes when lowly Bielefeld scored the opener through Masaya Okugawa as the Japanese international volleyed his shot home following a lobbed pass from Patrick Wimmer.
Things got worse for the visitors in the second half when the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty after Kevin Mbabu brought down Alessandro Schopf in the area. Fabian Klos stepped up to bury the spot kick.
Wolfsburg finally woke up and cut their deficit in the 62nd minute Wout Weghorst ran towards a low cross from Dodi Lukebakio to tap home. There was no time to savor that goal as Lukas Nmecha strike just seconds later leveled the score.
The visitors came very close to taking the lead in the 77th minute when Maximilian Arnold sent a blistering free-kick towards the goal, but it was well saved by Bielefeld goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. He would be called into action seconds later to clear a headed attempt off his line.
Wolfsburg drops to sixth place in the standings with 20 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, Timothy Chandler played 65 minutes as Eintracht Frankfurt were the victors in a 2-0 win over Freiburg.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Justin Butler came off the bench to play three minutes for Ingolstadt as they shared the spoils with Karlsruhe following a 1-1 draw.
Nicolas Carrera was on the bench for Holstein Kiel in their 2-1 defeat to Heidenheim.
Ryan Malone watched from the bench as Hansa Rostock fell in a 2-1 loss to Erzgebirge Aue.
Down in 3. Liga, Mael Corboz went the distance for Verl as they were beaten by Saarbrucken by a 4-2 scoreline.
Terrence Boyd started and scored the lone goal for Hallescher while Lennard Maloney came on to play 30 minutes for Borussia Dortmund II in their 2-1 win.
Andrew Wooten played 72 minutes for Osnabruck as their game with Waldhof Mannheim ended in a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Kevin Lankford played the last 25 minutes for Wehen Wiesbaden in their 1-0 defeat to Kaiserslautern.
Bryang Kayo watched from the bench as Viktoria Berlin and Wurzburger Kickers played out a 1-1 draw.
