A mouth-watering prospect in the North West
The pick of gameweek 27 in the Bundesliga has to be Borussia Monchengladbach versus Bayer Leverkusen as Saturday afternoon. It is a huge matchup in the race for Champions League qualification and arguably even the title should Bayern Munich slip up in the next few weeks. Peter Bosz’s visitors are only eight points behind the league leaders in fifth and in stunning form, picking up 25 points from their last 10. Having said that home advantage makes Gladbach narrow favourites for this encounter, having showed their class in easing to a 3-1 victory away to Eintracht Frankfurt last time out.
Last time out
Both these sides came back with a bang after the break, especially the hosts with Alassane Plea giving them the lead inside 40 seconds, leaving Frankfurt shellshocked. Marcus Thuram tapped in from Ramy Bensebaini’s cross on seven minutes, seeing Marco Rose’s men overtake RB Leipzig into third place, with the Champions League quarterfinalists slipping up in a 1-1 draw at home to mid table Freiburg. Plea was the star man, a constant threat drifting in from the right wing, he struck the post with a venomous strike midway through the second half that would have added gloss on a superb display. The Frenchman was too hot to handle and let off five shots before departing on the 90-minute mark.
Leverkusen had to wait until Monday evening to strut their stuff, and it was worth the wait. Werder Bremen huffed and puffed but were outclassed by the visitors, the first three goals were all headers, two from Kai Havertz in the first period involving some desperately poor defending. Moussa Diaby picked up his second assist of the game, setting up Mitchell Weiser who had ghosted into the area from right back to nod Bosz’s men into a two-goal advantage.
Key men
Kerem Demirbay embarrassed Jiri Pavlenka to seal it in the 78th minute, faking and dinking the keeper having been slipped in beautifully by Karim Bellarabi cutting in from the right. The 26-year-old dominated proceedings in the second period, taking the ball from centre backs Edmund Tapsoba and Sven Bender before embarking on surging runs through the middle, picking great passes and tiring out Werder who are staring down the barrel of their first relegation since 1980. In the absence of Swiss man mountain Denis Zakaria in the Gladbach centre, Demirbay will have more time and could play a huge role in the flow and his side’s productivity on Saturday afternoon.
Plea is the man to watch for the hosts, his pace and power combined with silky close control will trouble the in-form Leverkusen backline. The forward is on for posting his best attacking statistics for a single campaign, having been directly involved in 16 goals from 23 matches this term, he is Rose’s crown jewel in their bid to be title challengers.
Leverkusen seem the more solid outfit, and come into this game on the more consistent side, with great options from the bench they will be hard to stop.
Post bet chat Marcus's Tips:
Leverkusen rise to third with a commanding 3-1 win. Gladbach in danger of slipping out of the European spots.