SEven after the impressive prestige victory, the supporters of Borussia Mönchengladbach continued to work on Rasenballsport Leipzig and their former coach. Marco Rose also felt the full fan anger after RB’s 0: 3 (0: 2) at his old place of work. There was a lot of abuse and whistles from the stands, just like before and during the emotionally charged game at his former club on Saturday night. Former sports director Max Eberl, who is about to join RB, was also insulted on fan posters.
Gladbach midfielder Christoph Kramer, who hugged Rose warmly after the final whistle, did not understand the actions of his own supporters. “I don’t share a lot of people’s hate at all. I know that it’s part of the business and that unfortunately it always takes on a certain dynamic, but I don’t agree with that,” said the 2014 world champion on “Sky”: “Marco Rose as a trainer and as a person is outstanding.”
The mood in Borussia Park in front of 50,186 spectators was also heated because of Max Eberl’s personality. Last week, the Borussia fan project settled accounts with Eberl in an open letter about his forthcoming move to RB. Eberl was verbally abused on posters in the stadium. The stadium announcer even warned the fans in the curve to take down a poster, otherwise referee Patrick Ittrich would interrupt the game. It said: “A son-of-a-bitch association only hires sons of bitches.”
“Right, take down the poster”
When it comes to such insults on banners, he has a “relatively short leash,” Ittrich said afterwards, “we have to take relatively clear action against such things. Here are children in the stadium, here are people who want to see football. Using this space to trumpet his insulting statements – that has to stop.”
He is “not the biggest fan in the direction of RB Leipzig either,” said Kramer, “but pure hatred does not belong on any sports field and not in our world. So it was absolutely right to take down the poster.” During his time in Mönchengladbach, Eberl had always harshly criticized the RB construct, with many interconnected teams from all over the world. According to Leipzig’s managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, negotiations with Gladbach about Eberl joining the Saxons are nearing completion.
At least the Borussia pros didn’t allow themselves to be irritated by the unrest. Gladbach was clearly superior. Among the guests, who lost 2-0 at Real Madrid in the Champions League last week, left-back David Raum in particular had a bad day. Before the 0:1, the national player made a crucial mistake. Goalscorer Hofmann added a good 20 minutes to the 3-1 win over Leipzig last season. After repeated preliminary work by Marcus Thuram, who was also strong, Hofmann successfully completed a counterattack and scored his sixth Bundesliga goal against RB. Only Robert Lewandowski (7) has scored more often against Leipzig.
In Xaver Schlager and Timo Werner, Rose brought in two more strong players at the break, whom he had initially rested. Leipzig became more offensive, but didn’t have many more chances against convincing Borussia. Bensebaini’s lob over RB goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi for an early preliminary decision was particularly worth seeing.
