Borussia Mönchengladbach secured a Karneval victory on Friday night, with a 5-1 win over an uninspiring Werder Bremen side at Borussia Park.
Lars Stindl got the scoring underway rounding off a well worked team move, by tapping in Thorgan Hazard's twelfth minute cross before the Chelsea loanee, Andreas Christensen doubled the score line nineteen minutes later. However the real star of the opening forty five minutes was Mahmoud Dahoud; the young midfielder playing well beyond his years during the first half.
The Dane, Christensen got another after the break before Claudio Pizarro gifted die Grün Weiß with a lifeline after a fifty-sixth minute penalty. However normal proceedings were resumed with twenty minutes to go as both Raffael and Håvard Nordveit got their names on the scoresheet and rounded off a superb performance and five goals to one victory.
André Schubert had made a number of changes from the side defeated at 1. FSV Mainz 05 the Friday previous. Julian Korb, Jonas Hofmann and Ibrahima Traoré the men making way for Dahoud, Nico Elvedi and Thorgan Hazard. The young German had not been risked in the defeat to die Nullfünfer, after he sustained a late hand cut.
Schubert's counterpart, Viktor Skripnik had made only the two changes to the side that drew 3-3 with Hertha BSC at the Weser Stadion as László Kleinheisler and Leon Guwara came in for Santiago Garcia and Florian Grillitsch.
Die Fohlenelf rewarded for fast start
The early minutes of the game would be associated with a headed effort for either side, Andreas Christensen for the hosts die Fohlenelf and Jannik Vestergaard for Viktor Skripnik's visitors. The Dane, Vestergaard, placing a firm header straight into the grasp of a thankful Yann Sommer before his fellow compatriot Christensen flicked a near post header over the far corner of the net.
Borussia Mönchengladbach's highly influencial Raffael was the next to test either 'keeper, yet the former Schalke 04 and Hertha BSC could only find Felix Wiedwald between the Bremen sticks. The former Eintracht Frankfurt man Wielwald, a product of the MSV Duisburg academy, is yet to keep a clean sheet this season and to put that into context it means die Grün Weiß, Werder Bremen are also yet to keep a clean sheet as Wiedwald has been an ever present.
Die Fohlenelf had started in bright fashion and were soon rewarded for their efforts, as Lars Stindl scored his first goal of the rückrunde after a well worked Thorgan Hazard and Mahmoud Dahoud move. The talented midfielder, Dahoud, had found the equally as talented young Belgian Hazard in the right flank before the ball was squared to Stindl to place into the empty net. A typical lightening counter attack move from André Schubert charges and Wieldwald quest for a clean-sheet had mustered only a mere twelve minute resistance.
It was two soon after and this time it was Christensen, who would get his first Fohlenelf and Bundesliga goal; Felix Wiedwald had been saved his blushes only moments before from one of the most bizarre own goals of the season, as he had spilled a long range Stindl strike. However, Dahoud was the quickest to react in the aftermath that followed, and stroked the ball into the path of the Chelsea loanee leaving the simplest of tasks to double the score line.
Prior, Bremen had exerted some notable pressure on the Swiss Sommer in the 'Gladbach goal; yet Clemens Fritz and Claudio Pizarro were unable to force the home 'keeper into any serious action.
Bremen's defending could be described quite simply atrocious during the first half and it was far to easy for the hosts to fashion a chance at their will; Skripnik's Grün Weiß had invested in the loan signing of Papy Djilobodji over the winter break in an effort to tighten their back line, yet early evidence would suggest the Senegalese had had little impact on Bremen's defensive woes. It must be said however that Mahmoud Dahoud had put in an extremely professional performance for a man of such relatively in-experience.
Any hopes of a Bremen comeback quashed
Perhaps a slightly good omen for the traveling legion of hardy Werder Bremen fans that had made the trip from the Hanseatic Port was that five of their six goals scored so far in 2016, had come in the second half; including the two late strikes to earn the most unlikely of draws against Hertha Berlin last weekend.
Any hopes of a comeback however were quashed five minutes after the restart, and what a night it was proving for the 19 year old Christensen. An out-swinging cross from Oscar Wendt was met by the un-marked Dane to replicate a similar glanced effort to his prior miss - This time however, his luck was in and it was three. Eighteen appearances it had took for Andreas Christensen to get his first Bundesliga goal, now he had two in under an hour.
The traveling band were supported some form of a lifeline, if you could call it that, as five minutes later they were awarded a spot kick after Martin Hinteregger was adjudged to have fouled Levin Öztunali. Second inspections showed that the Austrian Hinteregger was rather unfortunate to have been penalised after the Leverkusen loanee Öztunali had received the most miniscule of touches. Claudio Pizarro made no mistakes and sent Sommer the wrong way; a sixth Bundesliga goal for the veteran Peruvian on his return to the Weser Stadion.
Pizzaro's effort had injected some life into an otherwise abject and lifeless Grün Weiß and now it was they in the ascendancy, looking for a second goal that would bring them right back into proceedings.
They would've had it, hadn't it been to the heroics of stand in right back Nico Elvedi. The Swiss defender fashioned an unorthodox clearance from a goal bound Pizarro shot, after Sommer had parried Öztunali's driven effort.
Soon after, any small sliver of hope was well and truly evaporated. Die Fohlenelf awarded a spot kick of their own after Vestergaard hacked, in rather unscrupulous terms, Lars Stindl. Raffael was afforded the chance to get his name on the scoresheet and duly obliged and with a helping hand from Wieldwald's parry his shot from twelve yards found the right hand corner in front of the boisterous Südkürve. Håvard Nordveit got in on the action moments from the end, when his casual looping effort deceived the Bremen 'stopper and rounded off a performance befitting of the Karneval, that takes place at this time of year, in this corner of North Rhine Westphalia.