Second-place Borussia Moenchengladbach missed the chance on Friday to move level on points with Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund after losing 3-1 at Freiburg.
Moenchengladbach’s night started badly when forward Nils Petersen put Freiburg ahead with a penalty in the first minute, but the visitors equalized from the penalty spot after 20 minutes through Thorgan Hazard, the younger brother of Belgium and Chelsea star Eden Hazard.
Petersen’s strike partner, Luca Waldschmidt, put Freiburg back in front in the 57th minute and, with Moenchengladbach pushing for an equalizer, substitute forward Lucas Hoeler made it 3-1 four minutes into injury time.
Moenchengladbach are three points behind free-scoring Dortmund, level on 17 points with third-place Werder Bremenen and one point ahead of defending champions Bayern Munich in fourth.
Dortmund, which has netted 27 goals in eight league games plus eight in three Champions League matches without conceding one in Europe, were at home to sixth-place Hertha Berlin yesterday.
Bayern were at Mainz yesterday, while Bremen host Bayer Leverkusen tomorrow.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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