16th matchday: With tremors: Leverkusen spoils Omlin’s debut in Gladbach

Yann Sommer’s tips and a late revolt by Borussia Mönchengladbach couldn’t save goalkeeper Jonas Omlin’s debut. The 2: 3 (0: 2) in the west duel against Bayer Leverkusen with returnee Florian Wirtz spoiled Sommer’s successor in the Gladbach goal thoroughly the Bundesliga debut.

“It was a stressful time. We were constantly in touch, he said I should enjoy it,” reported the 29-year-old on the DAZN streaming service. However, the result prevented this.

“Of course it was a tough start for him, it felt like the first three shots were possible,” added coach Daniel Farke. After the final whistle he went to the middle circle to his protégés, who had not given up even after being 0:3 behind. But Lars Stindl (82nd minute / 90th + 3) did not get more than the connecting goals. Bayer goals from Mitchel Bakker (21st), Amine Adli (43rd) and Nadiem Amiri (67th) made for the worst possible start to the period after Sommer said goodbye.

Bayer with a series

The effective pacemakers of Bayer coach Xavi Alonso finally managed the fourth Bundesliga win in a row and the sixth win in a row against Borussia. “I think we were the more effective team,” said goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky. “It was really, really good 70 minutes. Something happened then, we have to learn from that,” he warned. “If we had played three or four more minutes, something would have happened.”

The victory was crowned by the comeback of top talent Wirtz, who in the last 20 minutes made his debut in the Bundesliga for the first time since tearing his cruciate ligament ten months ago. Florian Neuhaus also made a comeback for Gladbach after his cruciate ligament injury last September.

The summer era, on the other hand, is over: Borussia’s long-standing number one left Gladbach last week after eight and a half years with the goal of FC Bayern Munich. For the transfer fee, Borussia Sommers lured compatriot Omlin from HSC Montpellier to Borussia Park. The debut of the Swiss number three was extremely unfortunate. The first good attack by the Bayer team, who could hardly get out of their own defense in the first 20 minutes, led to a deficit.

Bensebaini fails

The surprising lead of the guests was favored by a double mistake by Gladbach’s coveted left-back Ramy Bensebaini. The Algerian initially frittered away the ball while going forward and was then unable to stop opponent Jeremie Frimpong when running back. Adam Hlozek put his preparatory work on the post before Bakker dusted off. Until then, Gladbach dominated the game and had significantly more possession. However, without top striker Marcus Thuram, who was out due to knee problems, Farke’s team were far too harmless in attack.

Leverkusen had a lot more speed in the transition game. Again and again the quick attackers of the guests rushed away from the Gladbachers after losing the ball. In such a scene, Omlin made a brilliant save against Frimpong after almost half an hour, but was powerless just before the half-time whistle against Adli for Adli’s first goal of the season.

After a good ten minutes in the second half, in which Gladbach got off to a better start again, Farke reacted: three new players came in Stindl, Hannes Wolf and Joe Scally. The attacking game remained too cumbersome.

Borussia rears up

The situation was different for Leverkusen, who were given more and more space to counterattack and switched without frills: Just a few minutes after coming on, Amiri increased Bayer’s first shot on goal in the second half to 3-0. Omlin didn’t stand a chance. The guests survived Borussia’s rearing up in the final phase with a little effort.

With the win, the Werkself are now in ninth place with 21 points from 16 games and are just one point behind Borussia. Leverkusen will continue against VfL Bochum on Wednesday, Gladbach will then play at FC Augsburg at the same time – but without Stindl, who will then be suspended.