André Schubert seems to be a good coach for Borussia Mönchengladbach. The Fohlen beat VfL Wolfsburg at home 2-0 after the game was poor for three quarters of it.
The biggest spectacle of the day started slowly, in the first five minutes, both teams played through their midfield.
After 12 minutes, a shot by Lars Stindl hit the post. Oscar Wendt got the rebound but could not endanger Diego Benaglio in the Wolfsburg goal.
In the 16th minute, André Schürrle played a decent pass to Daniel Caligiuri, who ran past keeper Tobias Sippel and fell. Referee Felix Zwayer blew his whistle and seemed to decide to give Wolfsburg a penalty. But after some discussions with players of both teams and apparently with his linesman, he decided not to give a penalty but to continue the game with a goal kick for Borussia Mönchengladbach.
It kept being a poor game with both teams having difficulties to create good goal opportunities. Mönchengladbach had slightly more of the ball but like Wolfsburg, they did not cause any danger for the opponent's defense.
In the 35th minute, Marcel Schäfer had a good chance for the Wölfe, but his shot from just outside the box went wide.
After the break, it went from bad to worse as it was nearly a boring game between two good teams who furthermore participate in this year's Champions League campaign.
In the 60th minute, Stindl's effort from around 20 meters, went just around the right post.
Instant impact from Gladbach substitutes
Moments later, both coaches made substitutions to enforce the offensive play of their teams: For Wolfsburg, Bas Dost, a real striker, went on for Marcel Schäfer and Havard Nordtveit and Patrick Herrmann replaced Mahmoud Dahoud and Fabian Johnson for Borussia Mönchengladbach.
After a bad mistake by Granit Xhaka in the 70th, Caligiuri had a good shooting opportunity, but his shot went high and wide.
After 75 minutes, it was Nordtveit who scored the opener after a good cross by Raffael. Even though he slipped and fell, he hit the ball and it became even more dangerous for Benaglio, who was unable to keep the ball from rippling the back of the net.
Only four minutes later, Ibrahima Traoré made it 2-0 for the hosts: after a perfect pass by Stindl, the Ivorian was on a one-on-one against Benaglio, beating the goalkeeper.
It was an important win for Borussia Mönchengladbach who finally leave the dangerous zone of the table, being on 13th place now. It is a harsh defeat for the Wölfe, because they are losing touch with the Bundesliga front runners. With 12 points out of eight games, VfL Wolfsburg are "only" seventh for the moment.