Heung Min Son's 10th goal of the season continued Mönchengladbach's horrendous start to the Rückrunde as Sami Hyypiä's Leverkusen side picked up back to back wins in their race to secure 2nd place.
Young right back Julian Korb has picked up his 5th booking of the season against Hannover 96 in last Saturday's disappointing 3-1 defeat at the HID Arena, so Norwegian Håvard Nordtveit came in to replace him. For Leverkusen, Sidney Sam made his first full start since return from injury, Stefan Reinartz making way, as he did against Stuttgart last weekend when Sam replaced him from the substitutes bench. With 'Gladbach losing their last two against rejuvenated Hannover 96 and Bayern Munich, could the put a dent into Leverkusen's challenge to solidify 2nd place?
The away side started much the stronger at Borussia Park, Stefan Kiessling's attempted through ball evading Heung Min Son before being gathered, and strong pressuring from the Werkself's attacking force of Kiessling, Son and Sam forcing Mönchengladbach to pass the ball around their own 18 yard box, in particular 21 year old 'keeper Ter Stegen certainly not afraid to have the ball at his feet, a confident young man with the world at his feet.
The opening period was rather dull in terms of a Bundesliga match, usually we see vibrant attacking football in open games, Nordtveit's cross field pass locating Venezuelan Arango, but the experienced winger's cross was one not for pleasant viewing. However, after an unusually poor ball from Gonzalo Castro had Bernd Leno aiming for the sidelines. Patrick Herrmann was about to launch a quick ball towards the rather open Leverkusen area, until substitute Philipp Wollscheid slyly threw another ball onto the pitch, giving the defence plenty the time to prepare themselves, as referee Florian Meyer handed Wollscheid, not even on the pitch, the first booking of the match, much to the young defender's shock and horror, I'm sure.
Leverkusen's ability to play perfect passes across the pitch to each other became a trend in the game and a problem for Favre's side, Son's diagonal pass caused ter Stegen and his defence some communication problems as both the 'keeper and Martin Stranzl attempted to clear, thankfully for the Borussia Park faithful no major hiccups were suffered.
The first real chance of the match fell to the home side, a planned tactic from Die Fohlen, Max Kruse playing a neat one-two with Juan Arango before playing a delicious ball on the edge of the area for the pacey German, Patrick Herrmann, an exquisite curling shot destined for the bottom left hand corner, only for Leno to make a superb save, considering his sight was blocked by a few Bayer legs.
Tony Jantschke then uncharacteristically passed the ball to the awaiting opposition in front of his own box, Emre Can found Sidney Sam on the right hand side, and in tight space the skillful winger's intricate move intended for the feet of Kiessling's was intercepted by the ever fantastic Christoph Kramer before being cleared.
Can was beginning to be a pain in the backside but his young temper flared after his troublesome burst down the left hand side was excellently cancelled out by Nordtveit before Can fouled the defender, who had made 3 substitute appearances under Favre since October 5. The resulting costless kick found Herrmann but Can's inexperience showed a little as he made a quite clearly intentional foul and he earned himself a booking for the trouble.
It was Gladbach who were using Leverkusen's usually able method of counter attacking, Oscar Wendt and Stranzl doing well between themselves to cope with the elusive Son, before a rapid move towards Bayer's box, Max Kruse working hard to try carve open an opportunity, his through pass not beating the brick wall pairing of Omer Toprak and Emir Spahic, before attractive link up play on the left returned the ball to Kruse, the summer signing from SC Freiburg's curling effort looking to be heading past Leno but Spahic did well to head over.
Sidney Sam provides Leverkusen with such a brilliant outlet, terrifying player to mark one would assume- and Can was making full use of him, another squared ball to the 25 year old who produced, doing well to lift the ball towards Son, the Korean doing well to find himself in the right positions but he needed to be more prepared to fire home past ter Stegen, almost having his back to play as he missed his chance and a goal kick was given to Borussia.
Two more opportunities fell the Korean's way but neither were taken. A lot of potential was clear to see in the former Hamburg man though, Toprak's clearance found Son and his impressive run led to him having to make a choice; with his team mates Kiessling and Sam in space, would he pass the ball or, to quote the commentator "have a Hollywood shot"? The latter for the ambitious 21 year old, though sadly his long range effort would sail over the bar, before a fantastic Jantschke interception prevented the forward from trying to redeem the missed chances after a clever instigation of the attack by Sam.
Gladbach were hoping the half time whistle would soon sound, but it was they who would have the final chance of the opening 45', Nordtveit's impressive cross almost found Kruse, but the outstanding Spahic poked the ball away, before the rattled Kruse claimed for a penalty as he crashed against Toprak.
A goal could have sprung the game into life and Leverkusen very nearly had one early in the second half, Spahic brought the ball into midfield, a common trait of Leverkusen's play, high pressure up the pitch, finding the feet of Lars Bender, the brother of Dortmund's Sven's cross was exquisite and Can should have done far better, his header bouncing off the top of the net, before a penalty incident at the other end, Arango's ball missed by Herrmann, who fell to the ground by Can's feet, who looked away, with seemingly no attempt to win the ball, but referee Meyer waved the play on.
The Foals may have made it 1-0 if not for a world class tackle from Omer Toprak, Herrmann's fantastic pass cutting open the defence and just before Raffael latched on to the pass, Toprak appeared, not even catching Raffael as he robbed the ball from the Brazilian, and a few minutes later, after Toprak had recovered from an injury he had suffered during the intervention, the away side went into raptures of celebration.
Sam was again involved, a break away down Gladbach's left hand side as he noticed the Korean Son unmarked outside the box to his left. With a deft pass, Son received the ball and unleashed an unstoppable strike, the ball lnding perfectly into the right hand corner, much to the disgust of ter Stegen at his defence's woeful marking, giving the man who was the match winner against Borussia Dortmund on December 7, his 10th goal of the season.
The goal ripped open the game, much more fight and desire from both sides, something we should have seen a lot more in the first half, Son combining with Kiessling, a chance on Borussia's goal being halted by a magnificent Martin Stranzl, though Mönchengladbach's hopes of scuppering anything in the match really truly should have been dashed, as Rob Hilbert's pass evaded the home defence and as Kiessling's lined up his shot, the Bundesliga top scorer of last season drilled his effort across ter Stegen and the post.
Max Kruse's incredible persistence paid off, attempting three or four times to steal the ball away to Wendt, his cross landing with Nordtveit, then patient passing found Juan Arango, the 33 year old found the man who began the move, and Kruse's effort was brilliantly saved by Leno down to his right hand side.
The term "end to end" is thrown around loosely, but it's the only one that aptly describes the next few moments of the match. Oscar Wendt isn't known for his exceptional defending, but Kiessling was to be depraved of a goal as the Swede made an unbelievably last ditch stop to the 29 year old's efforts to beat ter Stegen. At the other end of the pitch, Max Kruse's dummy from Branimir Hrgota's pass found substitute Peniel Mlapa, who had scored at Hannover, but my man of the match by a distance, Emir Spahic, made yet another crucial block.
Mlapa would again be involved in the last real chance of the match, a fantastic pass found the impressionable Hrgota, but the Swede was outmuscled by Toprak, and Gladbach's black mark against Leverkusen continued- now 23 games without victory against their opponents at Borussia Park; 17 draws, 6 losses! A remarkable statistic.
The 3rd consecutive loss of the Rückrunde and no points in 2014 for Lucien Favre and his team. They remain in 5th place, with Leverkusen 10 points away from leaders FC Bayern going into Saturday's fixtures. It's Werder Bremen next for Mönchengladbach who will look to end their horrid run of recent results. For Bayer, it's Schalke- a win for the Hyypiä's side would do Favre's outfit quite the favour.