Borussia rediscover their fun factor
Mönchengladbach - Borussia Mönchengladbach were yet to win in the league this season ahead of their Matchday 3 encounter with FC Schalke 04 on Saturday evening. After a rip-roaring 90 minutes of action at the Borussia Park, however, the Foals had put that statistic to bed, and in some style.
Wendt hails Raffael
A brilliant attacking display, reminiscent of the astonishing early-season form they showed this time last season, when they won their first seven home games, was too much for UEFA Champions League-aspiring Schalke. Gladbach ended the game as deserved
and the fun-factor is very much back at Borussia after a somewhat sluggish start to the campaign.
“We started a bit slowly against Stuttgart and scored late, and we didn’t create much against Freiburg,” said Swedish international defender
exclusively to
bundesliga.com
. “Today we were brilliant, though. It was a well-deserved victory for us against a very good Schalke side, and we're satisfied to be back to winning ways, especially after two draws. “We defended really well for the most part,” continued the 28-year-old, before singling out two of his goalscoring team-mates for special praise. “When we got forward, we attacked with a lot of quality.
is in really good shape and it looks like he’s been scoring all the time, and
was unstoppable. For me he’s one of the best players in the Bundesliga."
‘Everything went right’
The Brazilian himself was a happy man indeed after a superb individual display in which he grabbed his first goal of the season, assisted for returning strike partner
to do likewise, and was a thorn in the visitors’ side all afternoon with his dribbling, running and indefatigable work rate. The 29-year-old, once briefly a Royal Blue himself, preferred to focus on the effort of the collective, although he did admit that the quality of opposition made victory all the sweeter. “It was a really good performance from us. It was a game we wanted to win and everything went well,” he told
bundesliga.com
. Schalke are one of the top three or four teams in the Bundesliga and they're in the Champions League every year, so to score four goals against them was a great effort from us.”
Focus on Villarreal
Up next for Lucien Favre’s Foals is a testing UEFA Europa League group stage tie against Villarreal CF next Thursday, preparation for which now begins in earnest, meaning there will be no resting on any laurels for USA international
and Co. “We’re not looking at the league table just yet after only three games,” said the 2014 FIFA World Cup star. “We’ll have a light training session on Sunday and we’ll analyse this game, but then we’ll start looking ahead to Villarreal.” After easily their best performance of the season so far, and with more fervent home support to look forward to on Thursday, Wendt summed the mood up perfectly ahead of the Spaniards’ visit: “We respect every team that comes here, but we don’t fear any of them.” Bernie Reeves reporting from the Borussia-Park
