Salomon Kalou, Ondrej Duda, and Davie Selke give Hertha Berlin all three points away at Borussia Mönchengladbach
The Old Lady produced some excellent, tenacious football to hand Borussia Mönchengladbach their first home defeat of the season.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-3 Hertha Berlin
Goals: 0-1 Kalou (30’), 0-2 Duda (56’), 0-3 Selke (76’)
The Foals, hoping to set a new club record of 13 consecutive home wins, had the lion’s share of chances in the early stages with five shots (two of them on target) compared to the visitors’ two. However, with half an hour gone, Hertha captain Salomon Kalou opened the scoring with a lovely goal after dribbling past three men in white. The day threatened to go from bad to worse for the home side when, four minutes later, Dieter Hecking was forced into an early change with Jonas Hofmann leaving the field through injury. Gladbach continued to enjoy the majority of possession and shots but could not find a way through and would go into the dressing room knowing that they had everything to do in the second half.
An early equaliser failed to materialise and ten minutes into the second half, Davie Selke and Ondrej Duda combined to pile the pressure on the hosts. Selke collected the ball just inside his own half and made a determined run into the Gladbach area. Upon reaching the byline, he did just enough to find Duda in the middle of the six-yard box for a tap-in. Ten minutes later, Kalou probably should have made it 3-0 after finding himself alone in front of goal, only to see Yann Sommer equal to the shot. Hertha would get their third with a quarter of an hour remaining when Duda returned the favour and found Selke at the back post with a cross from a set piece, which the striker calmly headed home. Try as they might, Gladbach could not put together a consolation goal, leaving Hertha to celebrate being the first team to win at the Borussia-Park this season.
Watch: Kalou describes his wonderful solo goal!
Match stats
- Gladbach’s perfect home record has come to an end after 12 consecutive victories at the Borussia-Park.
- Duda scored his tenth goal of the season (his second against Gladbach), making him the Bundesliga’s highest-scoring midfielder.
- Hertha’s third goal was Selke’s first headed goal for nearly four years, since April 2015 for Werder Bremen.
- Selke’s top speed was 21.2mph, faster than any Gladbach player.
- Kalou enjoys playing against the Borussias; his two other goals this season were scored on matchday 9 in Dortmund.
- Marko Grujic’s assist for Kalou’s opener was his first in the Bundesliga.
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Line-ups
Gladbach: Sommer – Lang (Herrmann 64’), Ginter, Elvedi, Wendt – Neuhaus, Strobl (Kramer 81’), Hofmann (Cuisance 34’) – Hazard, Stindl (c), Plea
Unused subs: Sippel, Zakaria, Traore, Jantschke,
Out: Bennetts (thigh), Doucoure (thigh), Raffael (collarbone)
Coach: Dieter Hecking
Hertha: Jarstein – Stark, Rekik, Torunarigha – Klünter, Grujic, Lustenberger, Mittelstädt – Duda (Darida 88’) – Kalou (c), Selke
Unused subs: Kraft, Skelbred, Köpke, Ibisevic, Plattenhardt, Dardai
Out: Dilrosun (knock), Kade (ankle), Lazaro (suspended), Leckie (match fitness), Luckassen (ankle), Maier (groin), Pekarik (calf)
Coach: Pal Dardai
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