Two sides just about hanging onto midtable spots in the Bundesliga meet in the weekend’s first match as Borussia Monchengladbach head to the Vonovia Ruhrstadion to take on VfL Bochum.
The hosts have lost three of their last four games in all competitions, whilst the visitors have produced an underwhelming campaign but won an important game last weekend.
A shock victory at home to league leaders Bayern Munich in early February could have provided Bochum with a serious dose of momentum.
It appeared to have the opposite effect, however, the club drawing with relegation-threatened Stuttgart, losing to RB Leipzig and being knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by Freiburg.
They did then manage a narrow win against lowly Greuther Furth, but returned to losing ways last weekend when a Sebastian Polter goal was rendered worthless by an Eintracht Frankfurt comeback that ended in Die Adler winning 2-1.
That string of results has left Thomas Reis’s side in mid-table mediocrity, 12 points away from the European spots and with a nine-point cushion to the relegation zone.
The rest of the season will now likely be somewhat a case of going through the motions, but this weekend will see one of their more important games against a side two places and two points below them.
Borussia Monchengladbach came into last weekend desperate to bounce back from a painful defeat, having thrown away a two-goal lead away at fellow strugglers Stuttgart to lose 3-2.
Fortunately for Adi Hutter and his team, they did just that, with an Alassane Plea penalty and a Matthias Ginter header earning them an important 2-0 win at home to another relegation candidate in Hertha Berlin.
Another defeat would have had a fairly dramatic impact on Gladbach’s prospects this season.
Instead of having opened out a seven-point gap to Hertha in 17th, it would have been one point between the sides and just two points to Arminia Bielefeld in the relegation playoff spot.
Die Fohlen also produced a shock victory over the mighty Bayern earlier in the year, and the two giant-killers will now have to see which one of them can triumph over the other.
VfL Bochum Bundesliga form:
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VfL Bochum form (all competitions):
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Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form:
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We say: VfL Bochum 0-1 Borussia Monchengladbach
With both sides dealing with a COVID outbreak – and Gladbach missing their manager – this will likely be a case of who adjusts better to the trying circumstances. This will likely be a tight match lacking in goals but we are backing the visitors to secure another important win.