Wonder Goal Seals Gladbach Win

Borussia Mönchengladbach made up for the disappointment of losing their opening two Bundesliga matches by putting title hopefuls Werder Bremen to the sword with a highly deserved 3-2 win.

Goals from Matmour, Friend and Baumjohann set them on their way, but they were left to fret a little at the end after late goals from Claudio Pizarro and Diego.

FIRST HALF

The first half began at a fine tempo with both sides quickly settling to their task. Borussia looked to find target man Rob Friend, whereas Werder were happy to stroke the ball about looking for the space. Gladbach lined-up with a new three-man back line in an attempt to secure their first points of the season.

The game jumped to life in the 12th minute with Gladbach hitting the opening goal. Hot prospect Marko Marin was the architect providing a magical ball for Matmour to run onto. The Algerian found himself bearing down on an isolated Tim Wiese and his unleashed a ferocious shot that left the keeper with absolutely no chance.

Werder were having more possession but a committed Gladbach defence was allowing them no space at all at shutting them out. The visitor’s best chance arose quite by accident when Ndjeng inadvertently deflected the ball to Pizarro, but the Werder front man was twice denied by an alert Heimeroth in the Gladbach goal.

The home side then sprang to life in an attacking sense and began to cause Werder all sorts of problems at the back. A superb piece of combination play (reminiscent of Werder at their best) led to the second goal.

Ndjeng overlapped on the right and a fine move culminated with him putting across an excellent cross, which Rob Friend headed in with aplomb after beating Prödl to the ball at the near post.

Diego tried a few efforts from distance, but Werder as an attacking force were just not cutting the mustard. At the other hand, Matmour and Marin were lively and causing lots of problems at the other end.

SECOND HALF

Thomas Schaaf made a double switch at half time bringing on Hugo Almeida and Mesut Özil on in an attempt to claw back the two-goal deficit. A brighter start was made by the visitors with Clemens Fritz firing a shot goalwards less than 60 seconds after the restart. Heimeroth was there to claim though.

Bremen were certainly in a different gear at the start of the second half. Daems had to clear at the last minute after Boenisch effort, while Baumjohann also cleared well from a Pizarro header.

Despite the home side’s clear two-goal advantage the game was still finely balanced. Just as Werder trainer Thomas Schaaf sent on the more attack minded Martin Harnik for Prödl, Gladbach hit them with their third goal of the afternoon- and what a goal it was!

Alexander Baumjohann picked the ball up in his own half and set off on a powerful run towards the Werder goal. He shrugged off a challenge from Torsten Frings before rounding both Naldo and Boenisch and firing past a static Tim Wiese. If Lionel Messi had done that the world would be talking about it! Let’s hope Baumjohann gets just as much credit.

The excitement and goals however were not at an end though and Werder made it a nervous finish for Jos Luhukay and the Gladbach fans with two late goals of their own.

Almeida headed on a corner which was cleared off the line by Baumjohann. The ball however hit Brouwers and flew back goalwards, only for Heimeroth to fish the ball off the line once more. Werder striker Claudio Pizarro was on hand though to poke home.

Then in the last minute Diego curled home a superb direct free kick to make it 3-2, but it was a case of too little, too late for the visitors and the Fohlen ran out deserved winners, while Werder remain winless after three games.

Goals

1-0 Matmour (12)

2-0 Friend (30)

3-0 Baumjohann (71)

3-1 Pizarro (79)

3-2 Diego (89)

Borussia M’gladbach: Heimeroth, Daems, Brouwers, Callsen-Bracker, Ndjeng (Kleine 86), Paauwe, Alberman (Levels 75), Matmour, Baumjohann, Marin (Coulibaly 77), Friend

Werder Bremen: Wiese, Fritz, Prödl (Harnik 70), Naldo, Boenisch, Baumann (Özil 46), Frings, Jensen, Diego, Rosenberg (Almeida 46), Pizarro

Yellow Cards:

Daems, Matmour / Naldo, Jensen, Diego, Pizarro