Why Borussia Mönchengladbach pose potential pitfall for league leaders Bayern Munich on Matchday 25
Over the years, Borussia Mönchengladbach have consistently caused more upsets for Bayern Munich than any other top-flight German side. Will the Foals throw another spanner in the record champions’ works when they face off on Friday evening?
It may come as a surprise nowadays, considering the two sides are currently separated by 38 points spanning 11 places in the table, but historically, Gladbach have inflicted more Bundesliga defeats on Bayern (28) than any other side in German football.
The 143 goals scored across their 115 prior meetings with the Bavarians is also a domestic record.
What’s more, the Foals have claimed 31 draws against Der Rekordmeister, with only Borussia Dortmund having drawn more times (32). As a result, Bayern’s win rate of 48.7 percent against Gladbach is their lowest against any team currently competing in the Bundesliga.
Additionally, this tendency to take points off their Munich opposition does not simply stem from a period of prolonged dominance during the Foals’ golden decade in the 1970s – it’s far more recent than that.
In fact, Gladbach have taken points off Bayern in 25 of their last 47 meetings, meaning in over half of their recent encounters, Gladbach have avoided defeat.
Granted, Vincent Kompany’s side are on a run of five consecutive wins over Borussia, which borders on unprecedented levels of dominance in this fixture, given that the last time this happened was between 1965 and 1967.
Nevertheless, the Foals still have reason to be confident going into this one, beyond simply their positive historical head-to-head record. A hard-fought 1-0 victory over Union Berlin in their most recent outing meant Gladbach drew a line under a recent seven-game winless run in the league thanks to a stoppage-time Kevin Diks penalty.
Watch: Gladbach 1-0 Union Berlin - highlights
After the full-time whistle, Diks made a clear statement of his desire to carry this momentum forward: “We can’t rest after this win, we have to keep working hard. This performance and this win mustn’t be a one-off. This is how we want to perform again next week.”
By contrast, Bayern head into this game off the back of a 3-2 comeback victory in Der Klassiker. But as odd as it may sound, perhaps a sense of complaceny might creep in on Matchday 25.
Hear us out. Whilst Bayern have won all 11 Bundesliga matches this season against teams currently placed between second and eighth in the table, they have slipped up against some of the underdogs – especially at home.
Gladbach will undoubtedly be aware that tBayern drew with Mainz at the Allianz on Matchday 13, and that Kompany’s men likewise suffered their only defeat of the campaign to Augsburg in their own backyard on Matchday 19.
Furthermore, although Bayern walked away from Borussia-Park as 3-0 winners of the reverse fixture back on Matchday 8, that game marked Foals coach Eugen Polanski's fifth game at the Gladbach helm.
Ahead of that meeting, the Polish coach had spoken about what it would take to get three points, saying: “You have to be good in one-on-ones, you have to be aggressive, you have to break their rhythm sometimes… These are fundamental qualities in every game; against Bayern, they’re perhaps a few percent more important than against other opponents. But you always need them to win games.”
Whilst his strategy didn't pay off that day, Polanski has accrued considerably more Bundesliga managerial experience since then, and will be pleased that his Gladbach outfit displayed each of those qualities in their most recent victory over Union.
Nevertheless, as is so often the case when facing Bayern, Polanski must prepare his team for a 'David and Goliath' match-up against the Bavarians when they meet on Friday night. Even tougher is the fact that Bayern have not lost a Friday-night Bundesliga fixture in over four years dating back to January 2022.
However, the agent of the defeat in question was none other than - you guessed it - Gladbach.
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