Borussia Moenchengladbach coach Marco Rose on Sunday compared his side to a punchbag after they failed to return to the top of the Bundesliga after Max Arnold’s thundering stoppage-time volley consigned them to a 2-1 defeat at VfL Wolfsburg.
Moenchengladbach arrived at the Volkswagen Arena knowing a third straight league win would send them back top above RB Leipzig, who hammered Fortuna Duesseldorf 3-0 on Saturday.
Rose’s side lost for a second straight game following last week’s defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir in the UEFA Europa League.
Photo: AFP
“I find it really disappointing — although I knew it would come — that my team would be treated this way, like a punching bag being hit here and there,” Rose said. “We’ve been answering all the questions people have asked of us for seven or eight weeks now and so this week we’ve received two bitter results — and now people are saying we aren’t up to it.”
Arnold’s effort, 42 seconds into stoppage-time, came after Breel Embolo had responded for Borussia following Xaver Schlager’s opener.
The hosts opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Schlager side-footed into the net from close range to score his first of the season.
Moenchengladbach hit back two minutes later when Embolo smashed in a looping cross from Alassane Plea at the back post to make it 1-1.
From there, the encounter turned scrappy, with six yellow cards, three in each half, as each side pushed for a winner.
With the clock winding down, Arnold met a poorly cleared ball at the edge of the penalty area and struck it cleanly past goalkeeper Yann Sommer to claim the three points.
Wolfsburg moved up to eighth place, while ’Gladbach fell to second after 10 weeks on top of the table and are two points behind Leipzig.
In the late game, 10-man Schalke 04 leapfrogged Bayern Munich into fourth place as they held on to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 thanks to an inspired performance from Amine Harit.
“We played with cleverness and maturity to close out the game in what was a completely crazy day for us,” Schalke coach David Wagner said. “Crazy day, crazy game, but for the way the boys fought back, we’re incredibly happy.”
Harit was everywhere at the Veltins Arena, creating the overlap and then assisting Benito Raman’s goal in the 53rd minute.
The hosts endured a nervous final 25 minutes — as well as seven minutes of stoppage-time — after goalkeeper Alex Nuebel was red-carded for a brutal challenge on Eintracht’s Mijat Gacinovic outside the penalty area.
Gacinovic suffered a blow to the head as a result of the clash and was unable to continue.
Eintracht’s Lucas Torro then had a chance to equalize when a corner landed at his feet in front of goal, but the Spaniard failed to strike the ball cleanly.
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