Gladbach warmed up for their trip to Bayern with a 2-0 win at Celtic Park.
Gladbach warmed up for their trip to Bayern with a 2-0 win at Celtic Park.

Borussia Mönchengladbach resuscitate Champions League campaign with Celtic win

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Lars Stindl and Andre Hahn inspired Borussia Mönchengladbach to a 2-0 win over Celtic in UEFA Champions League Group C on Wednesday night.

Celtic FC 0-2 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Goals: 0-1 Stindl (57’), 0-2 Hahn (77’)

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Celtic forced two saves from Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer in the opening few minutes, but the Foals settled down after a difficult to start in Glasgow, with Ibrahima Traore and Jonas Hofmann both seeing thumping efforts kept out by Sommer’s opposite number Craig Gordon. Scott Sinclair could have snatched an opener at the other end with half-time approaching, but with more than twice as many shots on goal as their opponents in the opening 45 minutes, it was nonetheless Gladbach who went into the interval as the more frustrated team with the scores at 0-0.

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Tobias Strobl looked to curl an effort beyond Gordon at the start of the second half but his shot sailed wide. Gladbach refused to be kept out though, and Stindl deservedly broke the deadlock just inside the hour, picking up on Hahn’s sliding tackle-cum-cut-back to drill his first goal of this season’s competition low through Gordon’s legs. Hahn went from maker to taker soon after, robbing Kolo Toure of the ball before sprinting clear and lashing Gladbach’s second goal high into Gordon’s net.

Talking Point

This was a positive dress rehearsal ahead of Gladbach’s trip to Bundesliga champions FC Bayern München on Saturday. Just as the 60,000-strong crowd at Celtic Park was partisan on Wednesday, so will be the majority of the 75,000 at the Allianz Arena this weekend. If the Foals can focus on the task at hand as they did here, they will feel optimistic about stretching their undefeated run against the Bavarians to five games.

Match Stats

    Goalscorers Stindl and Hahn were the two players who missed penalties in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Hamburger SV.Gladbach had 13 attempts on Celtic’s goal compared to the Scottish champions’ nine on theirs. The Foals dealt Celtic their first home defeat in 22 matches in all competitions.Gladbach coach Andre Schubert’s average of 1.9 points per Bundesliga game in his first 12 months is the best record of any Gladbach coach.

Line-ups

Celtic: Gordon - Lustig, Toure, Sviatchenko, Tierney - Brown (c), Biton (McGregor 63’) - Forrest (Roberts 73’), Rogic (Griffiths 71’), Sinclair - Dembele

Coach: Brendan Rodgers 

Gladbach: Sommer - Korb, Vestergaard, Elvedi, Wendt - Kramer, Strobl - Traore (Schulz 86’), Stindl (c), Hofmann - Hahn (Herrmann 90’).

Coach: Andre Schubert