Ginter seals Gladbach win to ease relegation worries

Gladbach 2-0 Hertha Berlin
Goals: 1-0 Plea (pen. 24'), 2-0 Ginter 59' (assist: Netz)

At the wrong end of the table with games rapidly running out, both of these teams were in desperate need of three points having endured respective winless runs. Gladbach's failure to pick up three points stretched back a month, and it was they who opened this Matchday 26 encounter showing more urgency. Breel Embolo struck a post in the ninth minute while Marcus Thuram raised an effort narrowly off target from a tight angle shortly afterwards. Still smarting from a recent reverse to fellow relegation candidates Stuttgart, a game in which they gave up a 2- 0 lead, Borussia were determined to make amends in front of their home supporters. Their shot at redemption began from the penalty spot after VAR ruled that Marc-Oliver Kempf had felled Thuram in the area. Offered the opportunity to score his first-ever Bundesliga penalty, Plea gladly accepted, Gladbach's No. 14 firing straight down the middle.

Despite being out of form and with history very much against them - Hertha having won just once in ten prior visits to Mönchengladbach - the Old Lady upped their efforts after the restart and went close to equalising when Kempf powered a header at goal which Yann Sommer spectacularly kept out. With Stuttgart drawing earlier in the day, Tayfun Korkut's side had already dropped into the Bundesliga's bottom two ahead of this game. A first victory in 2022 was thus a priority for the capital side but away hopes were skewered when an unmarked Ginter headed in Luca Netz's corner for 2-0. Jurgen Ekkelenkamp looked to alleviate the visitors' frustrations thereafter but the substitute's effort from distance smashed against the woodwork.

• Plea's opener was his sixth goal of the season, the same amount he managed in the entire 2021/22 campaign.
• As many as 16 of Plea's 34 Bundesliga goals have put his team 1-0 in front.
• The 29-year-old has been involved in seven goals in his last six Bundesliga games (three goals, four assists); no player can boast more in that period.
• Ginter scored his first Bundesliga goal in 27 games.
• Hertha have trailed at the break in seven of their last eight Bundesliga away games, and their last three in-a-row.
• Gladbach are the Bundesliga's most effective team from corners having scored five times from them this season.
• The last time Hertha were winless this far into a Rückrunde, they were relegated (1990/91).

Watch: Scally: "Maybe this win can turn things around for us"

Gladbach: Sommer (c) - Beyer, Ginter Elvedi - Scally, Kone, Neuhaus, Netz (Lainer 78') - Thuram (Stindl 89'), Plea (Kramer 65') - Embolo
Unused dubs: Sippel, Friedrich, Herrmann, Benes, Jantschke, Noß
Out: Bensebaini (suspended), Doucoure (muscular), Hofmann (muscular)
Coach: Adi Hütter 

Hertha: Lotka - Gechter, Stark (c), Kempf - Ascacibar (Serdar 46') - Pekarik (Kade 60'), Tousart, Darida (Richter 75'), Plattenhardt - Belfodil, Selke (Ekkelenkamp 75')
Unused subs: Christensen, Boyata, Mittelstädt, Lee, Dardai
Out: Jarstein (knee), Schwolow (match fitness)
Coach: Tayfun Korkut 

Watch: Korkut pleased with Hertha's "attitude" despite Gladbach defeat