Gladbach reach Telekom Cup final
Mönchengladbach - A last-gasp penalty from Filip Daems earned hosts Borussia Mönchengladbach a place in the final of the Telekom Cup on Sunday courtesy of a 1-0 win over a dominant, yet ineffective Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund pressure continues unabated
With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out with a stomach bug, Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp chose Jonas Hofmann to support Robert Lewandowski, and the BVB youngster had the first chance of the game when put through by Nuri Sahin, but he lost his nerve with just Marc-Andre ter Stegen to beat. Former Gladbach prodigy Marco Reus then set up Lewandowski, but ter Stegen came out on top again.
It was a similar story in the second half, with Dortmund largely dominant, but unable to make the breakthrough. Ter Stegen even put the opener on a plate for Sebastian Kehl, losing the ball well outside his own area, but the Yellow-Black's captain shied at the chance to shoot from the halfway line as another chance went begging.
Mönchengladbach had built their success in 2011/12 on a solid defence and swift counterattacking game and they almost landed a similar sucker punch when new signing Raffael was faced with the hitherto untested Roman Weidenfeller, but the Dortmund custodian showed good awareness to make a save before ter Stegen did even better at the other end to tip Reus’ effort onto the crossbar.
Dortmund pay the penalty
The tie seemed to be heading for a penalty shoot-out before Weidenfeller felled Raffael to pre-empt the spot-kick lottery. Daems stepped up to beat the Dortmund number one with the last kick of the game, earning the hosts a place in the final.
