Surprise package Borussia Moenchengladbach climbed to the top of the Bundesliga with a 3-0 win at Cologne on Friday as they continued their spectacular run this season.
Two goals from Mike Hanke and one from Juan Arango secured a fourth straight league win that saw them move on to 29 points, one ahead of Bayern Munich, who travel to FSV Mainz 05 today.
“This was a deserved win,” Gladbach coach Lucien Favre told reporters after his team stormed into a 2-0 lead at the break, before adding a third just after the interval. “We could have gone into the second half with an even bigger lead.”
Photo: EPA
“We wanted to pressure them from the start and my players did it well. We could have won by four or five goals today,” said the Swiss, who took charge midway through last season to keep them in the Bundesliga.
Champions Borussia Dortmund, in third place on 26 points, can themselves claim top spot with a home win over bitter rivals Schalke 04, who are a point behind them in fourth.
’Gladbach, who last season needed a relegation playoff to stay up, sent in front when forward Hanke fired in a low drive from 14m in the 20th minute.
Venezuela international Arango doubled the lead on the half hour, curling a 23m free-kick over the wall past goalkeeper Michael Rensing as Gladbach found little resistance in the regional derby that saw crowd trouble before the start.
Hanke dashed any Cologne hopes of a second-half comeback by slotting the ball home in the 47th after Rensing had palmed away a Patrick Herrmann shot.
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