From three to nine points: In just eight days, Borussia Mönchengladbach has turned around its poor start to the season. In the derby against 1. FC Köln, VAR had to intervene several times to make crucial decisions.
Borussia Mönchengladbach continues to move further away from the Bundesliga relegation zone. A week after its 4-0 victory against FC St. Pauli, Eugen Polanski’s team celebrated its second consecutive win, defeating 1. FC Köln 3-1 (1-0) at home in the Rhine derby.
“The most important match of the year,” at least for the fans: Polanski had already emphasized the importance of the match against Cologne, who were coming off a great start to the season. The visitors from the cathedral city were slightly more active at the start, but Borussia goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas managed to tip a good chance from Marius Bülter behind for a corner (10th minute).
Meanwhile, Gladbach mainly looked for counter-attacking opportunities. Their attacking strategy relied on the recently recovered Haris Tabakovic, who had already demonstrated his qualities as a center forward by dangerously deflecting a Philipp Sander cross towards Marvin Schwäbe’s goal (16th minute).
Schwabe saved the penalty, but Cologne were still trailing at halftime.
Cologne’s goal was only truly threatened after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) contacted referee Deniz Aytekin: a push by Kristoffer Lund on Franck Honorat was deemed a penalty after a review of the television footage. Goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe made a superb save to deny Tabakovic’s penalty, but the ensuing corner gave Gladbach the lead: Cologne failed to clear the danger cleanly on several occasions, and Sander headed it in (45+2 minute).
After the break, Cologne coach Lukas Kwasniok made an attacking change, replacing German international Said El Mala, formerly of Gladbach, with Ragnar Ache as center forward. But the decisive player was the unfortunate Lund: this time the Cologne defender handled the ball, and Kevin Diks converted the penalty (62nd minute).
