Borussia Monchengladbach held on to beat Werder Bremen at home, handing the visitors their fifth consecutive loss.
Raul Bobadilla scored two goals and set up two more in the first 35 minutes for the home side.
Bobadilla set up Marco Reuss' opening goal in the fourth minute and fed Roberto Colautti to make it 2-0 in the 13th minute. Argentinian forward Bobadilla scored his first goal in 13 games to make it 3-0 lead after 18 minutes.
Mesut Ozil pulled a goal back for Bremen in the 26th minute before Bobadilla made it 4-1 after 35 minutes. Claudio Pizarro cut the margin to 4-2 in the 40th minute and Torsten Frings converted a penalty in the 85th minute to set up a nervous finish for Michael Frontzeck's team.
But Gladbach picked up their first victory in four matches to give them some breathing space in 11th, eight points from the drop zone.
Bremen have now lost five straight matches and have not collected three points in their last seven games as Thomas Schaaf's team remained on 28 points for sixth place - seven points from European qualification.
The hosts grabbed the lead after just four minutes with Tobias Levels sending a through-ball to Bobadilla for a pass over to Reuss, who slotted home from seven yards.
The hosts doubled their lead nine minutes later on another counter-attack. Reuss fed Bobadilla down the right side and the South American waited for Colautti to arrive and the Israel international turned the ball home from three yards out. Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese got a hand on the ball but could not keep it out of his goal.
It was 3-0 inside 20 minutes as once again Reuss and Bobadilla combined, with Reuss sending a long ball down the right side where the South American allowed Per Mertesacker to slide past him, spun around and then beat Wiese at his near post from a tight angle.
Bremen pulled a goal back in the 26th minute. Former Gladbach playmaker Marko Marin fed Ozil, who nutmegged Gladbach goalkeeper Logan Bailly from 10 yards to the right of goal.
The hosts regained a three-goal advantage in the 35th minute with Bobadilla scoring his second goal by going round the advancing Wiese before stroking the ball home into the empty goal.
Just seconds after Marin struck the crossbar, Bremen again cut the deficit to two goals five minutes before the break with Aaron Hunt crossing from the right to Pizarro, who headed home from eight yards.
Wiese made a great save from Bobadilla's looping shot with 16 minutes left and Bremen made it 4-3 with five minutes to play, with Frings stepping up to the spot to convert a penalty after Bailly took down Marin.
No comments:
Post a Comment