Euro-pleite: Gladbach sucks!

The 1st leg of the Champions League qualifier went horribly wrong for Borussia M’gladbach. Playing at home in front of a crowd of 45,000+ against Dynamo Kiev, Borussia went down to a disgraceful 1-3 defeat. This means that CL Group stage is virtually unreachable now, and they’ll likely have to be content with the worthless Europaliga.

And things started out brightly, as Gladbach dominated and took the lead after 13 minutes on a goal by Finnish international Alexander Ring. They had some chances to riase the league, but then commited suicide with terrible defending and got kicked in the nuts.

10 thoughts on “Euro-pleite: Gladbach sucks!

  1. This really sucks after such a promising year last year. If the lower ranked teams can’t finish well the gap between the Bundesliga and La Liga / EPL won’t be bridged and we’ll be relying on Bayern to hold the rankings up.

  2. It is a bad result, althought from what I watched, Kiev did not do much other than score 3 goals (one of which took a deflection and another was an own goal) so Gladbach have every chance in the 2nd leg. They just need to keep hold of the ball better and improve their shooting!

    As for the gap between the Bundesliga and La Liga/EPL, I don’t think it will ever be bridged. Barcalona and Real are too strong and dominate a realatively weak league, and the English clubs spending power is greater than any Bundesliga club. Just as long as the Bundesliga continues to out-perform Seria A then I’ll be happy!

  3. This is my first ever comment here on abseits-soccer.com. So, I would take opportunity to first praise the great work of the founder of abseits-soccer.com. Dankeschön, Sir!

    Now, what happened in the all-important Gladbach game last night, has its causes in the wrong decisions of Lucien Favre and Max Eberl to waste big money on Luuk de Jong and Alvaro Dominguez. Favre’s greed for big signings made Eberl forget that he had discovered the sensation like Marco Reus from Vfr Ahlen in the third league! A club facing relegation and debts, a season ago, can’t afford to throw away 20 million Euros. By the time, De Jong and Dominguez start shining, Gladbach will be trying to catch Europa league at a season ending in higher debts.

    Eberl should have let Favre go and instead hired services of someone like Thomas Tuchel or Dieter Hecking!

    Now, unless Kiev make a mockery of themselves in their own home, Gladbach would be crashing out and embarrassing the great work done by other Bundesliga clubs for the hard-earned 4th spot for Bundesliga in Champions League.

    I enjoyed Gladbach’s resurgence last season but am now so disappointed with Favre and Eberl!

    A Bundesliga lover.

    • Thanks for the kind words, and welcome aboard!

      I pretty much agree with everything mentioned in this thread. The Bundesliga will do well to keep ahead of the Serie “Ha!”. The clubs just do not have the financial clout at this time, just look at the silly ticket prices in other leagues. And of course TV money is no where near the EPL or the Real Barcelona Liga. I suppose if “financial fair play” ever takes effect, the BL clubs will be in a somewhat better position financially. But on the other hand, we all agree that the Bundesliga is the best, at least from the fan perspective.

      As for Gladbach, I suppose I was a little harsh. But the loss to Kiev was silly and unnecessary. It will be interesting to see how they do in the rematch, and of course in the league. I suspect they will not repeat their performance from last year. Of course, I’ve never been a Gladbach fan, although I must admit that I once cut class so I could get Günter Netzer’s autograph when he made an appearance in downtown Wuppertal-Barmen at the gala-opening of another Sparkasse…

      • I understand the argument for being more (or appropriately) frugal, but I’m not sure it’s the management’s fault when players lack the mental strength for the big time. Reaching the group phase would (have been) a huge deal for Gladbach, therefore, this was maybe the most important tie of the season. I think it’s a matter of ‘being there’ and having the experience. So maybe Dortmund will do better this year.

        Speaking for Gladbach: if they don’t want last year’s results to be just the outlier, they probably NEED to invest in some quality players… After all, there are plenty of mediocre teams in the Bundesliga.

        • A 3 – 0 win in Kiev is not impossible.
          It all comes down to whether Lucien Favre rises to the occasion and mastermind and motivate the coup or not.
          I think that Favre should play his best players from last season and send the team on the pitch with rich vein of self-confidence.
          Goodluck Gladbach!

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