Monchengladbach, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) – A pair of goals from Patrick
Herrmann helped Monchengladbach claim a 3-1 home win over Hoffenheim on Sunday
in a top-four battle between unbeaten sides.
Monchengladbach and Hoffenheim entered the day as two of the three teams in
the Bundesliga that had yet to taste defeat. But after the clubs traded goals
in the first 30 minutes, Herrmann made the difference with a goal in each half
to help his team stay unbeaten and remain within four points of leaders Bayern
Munich.
The home side needed just 12 minutes to get off the mark as they put together
a nice counter attack that saw Herrmann coast down the left wing and cross the
ball to the middle of the box for Andre Hahn, whose volley found its way past
Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.
Hoffenheim was able to answer on the half-hour mark with a nice move that
involved Roberto Firmino and Steven Zuber and ended with Anthony Modeste
turning past his marker and driving a shot past goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
Hahn returned the favor to Herrmann only three minutes later, however, as
Monchengladbach took back the lead with Hahn’s right-wing cross finding
Herrmann at the near post and allowing him to turn the ball home.
Herrmann doubled his total in the 52nd minute to make it 3-1 when Baumann
fumbled a free kick from Havard Nordtveit that left Herrmann with a simple tap
in.
Raffael nearly added to the lead as he clipped the top of the crossbar with a
shot for Monchengladbach, which easily saw out the rest of the match to join
Wolfsburg on 20 points.
Paderborn used second-half goals from Elias Kachunga and Alban Meha to claim a
3-1 win over Hertha Berlin, while Freiburg secured its first win of the
campaign to move off the bottom of the league as Vladimir Darida’s 50th-minute
penalty kick was enough for a 1-0 win at Cologne.
