Borussia Monchengladbach will host Heidenheim with both teams suffering Bundesliga defeats last weekend. The visitors, who were just promoted, arrive in Monchengladbach one point ahead of their next opponents.
Preview (Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Heidenheim)
This season was always going to be a transitional one for Gladbach, having sold players like Jonas Hofmann, Marcus Thuram, and Rafael Bensebaini without getting the prices they would have expected for players of such caliber (partly because the latter two chose to extend their contracts). Die Fohlen decided to replace Daniel Farke with former Bayer Leverkusen boss Gerardo Seoane. However, the 44-year-old has struggled to make an impact during his early months in charge.
His only league triumph in eight games came from a 3-1 victory away to VfL Bochum. Since then, they have only picked up one point from two games against FC Koln and Mainz 05. Both of whom are in the relegation zone going into this coming weekend’s action. Before playing Seoane’s team at RheinEnergieStadion, Koln had only managed one point from their first seven games. However, Gladbach faced an uphill battle following Florian Kainz and Nico Elvedi’s goal exchanges. Manu Kone received a straight red card less than 20 minutes into normal time.
After Kainz scored his second goal of the match and Luca Waldschmidt scored a late settler, Steffen Baumgart’s team realized they could not afford to miss this fantastic opportunity to finally break their losing run. Gladbach would be in danger of finishing in the bottom three if they suffered another loss on Saturday. After the international break, Heidenheim also endured two straight losses. Their most recent setback came at home against Augsburg, a team that could challenge them for relegation. The 5-2 loss was very painful for them to endure. Heidenheim experienced an unwelcome sense of déjà vu as they lost to Hoffenheim in the opening weeks of the season.
Team News
After Kone’s costly dismissal during the loss to Koln, Gladbach will be without him for two games. It seems expected that Christoph Kramer will start in midfield in Kone’s place. Ko Itakura, Tobias Sippel, Hannes Wolf, Yvandro Borges Sanches, Tony Jantschke, Jonas Omlin, and Stefan Lainer are among the injured players that Seoane is currently dealing with. They are all anticipated to miss out on Saturday’s game. Conversely, Heidenheim should field a fully fit team, although Eldin Qenaj will not play because of a significant knee injury. Marvin Pieringer, who unexpectedly saw just bench action against Augsburg, will be hoping to go back into the starting lineup.
But, Schmidt will be considering how to strengthen his team’s defense without impeding their capacity to score goals. One possibility is to add Kevin Sessa to the lineup to give the visitors’ midfield greater stability. The season-long average of four goals scored in each of the teams’ games thus far indicates that fans at Borussia Park may be in for a fun match on Saturday. Heidenheim, who are playing their first season in the Bundesliga, have been a breath of fresh air in the early going. However, Gladbach will see an opportunity to win just their second game under Seoane, and we predict that they will do so by a tiny margin.
Borussia Monchengladbach 2 – 1 Heidenheim
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