August 13, 2016: Borussia Mönchengladbach-Lazio 0-0
- Dag Jenkins
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
Decent performance but no goals again
Lazio hold Bundesliga side to stalemate but confirm problems in attack
The season so far
Lazio had finished 8th in 2015-16. They had started under Stefano Pioli but he had been replaced by Simone Inzaghi after 31 matches. They had failed to get through the Champions League preliminary round, losing 1-3 to Bayer Leverkusen on aggregate and losing the Supercoppa final 0-2 to Juventus. For this season Inzaghi had been confirmed after initial choice Marcelo Bielsa had changed his mind after only a few days.
So far in the summer transfer market Lazio had signed defenders Jordan Lukaku (Oostende) and Wallace (Braga) and midfielder Moritz Leitner (Borussia Dortmund) while in attack Lazio had brought in Ciro Immobile (Sevilla). Lazio fans hoped other signings would follow to face a tough season ahead.
Some players had left Lazio: the end of contracts for Edson Braafheid, Abdoulay Konko, Stefano Mauri plus Miroslav Klose had retired. Defender Santiago Gentiletti had gone to Genoa. More were to leave over the summer.
This was Lazio's 7th summer friendly; Auronzo 19-0, Brazil Soccer Team 6-0, Padova 2-1, SPAL 1-1, Brighton 1-0 and Al-Shabab 0-0.
Lazio's Serie A season would start on August 21 away to Atalanta.
Borussia Mönchengladbach had finished 4th in the Bundesliga in 2015-16, under manager André Schubert. Their best league result was beating Bayern Munich 3-1. "Die Fohlen" had also taken part in the Champions League but were eliminated in the group stage with 1 win (Sevilla 4-2), 2 draws (Juventus 0-0, 1-1) and 3 defeats (Man City 1-2, 2-4 and Sevilla 0-3). The top scorer was Brazilian forward Raffael with 15 goals (13 in league).
This season the manager Schubert was confirmed. The main new players were: defenders Tobias Strobl (Hoffenheim) and Jannik Vestergaard (Werder Bremen), midfielders Christoph Kramer (Bayer Leverkusen) and László Bénes (Žilina) plus forward Josip Drmić (Hamburger SV).
Leaving were defenders Roel Brouwers (Roda JC) and Martin Hinteregger (Salzburg).
Borussia's first important appointment was on August 16 when they played Young Boys in the away leg of the Champions League play-offs. The Bundesliga kicked off on August 27 and Borussia MG faced Bayer Leverkusen at home. A week earlier on August 20 they would have a DFB-Pokal game (German Cup) away to Drochtersen Assel.
Lazio and Borussia MG had last met in the Europa League round of 32 in 2013 when Lazio won 5-3 on aggregate.
The match, Saturday, August 13, 2016, Borussia Park, Mönchengladbach
A 3.30 pm start on a sunny day in Nordrhein-Westfalen attracted just over 20,000 to the stadium inaugurated in 2004.
Lazio were missing Felipe Anderson (at the Olympics) and Senad Lulic (injured) while the hosts mixed things up a bit due to their upcoming Champions League game and fielded some regulars while others would come on at various stages of the game.
The Germans started strongly and in the 4th minute a long range Ibrahima Traoré effort was saved by Federico Marchetti.
In the 6th minute Thorgan Hazard tried his luck but his shot flew well over the bar.
In the 18th minute Sergej Milinkovic-Savic put Ciro Immobile in front of Yann Sommer but the Neapolitan striker was just offside.
In the 22nd minute Lazio went close from a corner as Milinkovic-Savic jumped up but his header shaved the crossbar.
On the half hour mark Borussia hit the woodwork. André Hahn cut in from the left, getting away from Wesley Hoedt, and let loose a cracking shot which hit the crossbar.
Halftime came with the game goalless. Lazio defended well, were disciplined and intense but were a bit toothless up front.
For the second half the home side made five substitutions while Lazio remained unchanged.
In the 47th minute Keita Balde ran onto a through ball but was anticipated by Sommer who raced off his line.
In the 50th minute both sides had a chance. For Lazio, Immobile shot wide while for Borussia Raffael missed an open goal.
Lazio had several counterattacks but were imprecise in their last touch especially with Ricardo Kishna.
In the 63rd the Westphalians made five more changes in view of their imminent trip to Switzerland.
The game slowed down due to all the changes and Lazio too started to look to the bench making four replacements; in came Wallace, Patric, Filip Djordjevic and Danilo Cataldi while Hoedt, Lucas Biglia, Dušan Basta, and Kishna ended their afternoons.
More changes followed for Lazio including the debut of Moritz Leitner.
Both sides had difficulty creating anything dangerous and although Lazio ended the game on the attack the scoreline did not change. Full time 0-0.
A good training game for an hour then the multiple substitutions and the mind going to upcoming appointments took away intensity and motivations.
Lazio held their own against fitter opponents. The Biancocelesti were well organised, disciplined, with good rhythm and had looked sharper than against Al-Shabab but still had problems scoring (second consecutive goalless performance).
Lazio now had one last practice game against the Lazio U19s on August 18 and then it was Serie A time.
For Borussia it was only three days to Champions League.
Who played for Borussia Mönchengladbach
Sommer, Jantschke (63' Rütten), Christensen (46' Vestergaard), Strobl (46' Elvedi), Wendt (46' Johnson), Kramer (63' Dahoud), Hofmann (63' Ndenge, 87' Bénes), Traoré (46' Hermann), Hazard (46' Korb), Hahn (63' Schulz), Raffael (63' Sow, 87' Stindl)
Substitutes: Sippel
Manager: Schubert
Who played for Lazio
Marchetti, Basta (69' Patric), de Vrij (78' Prce), Hoedt (69' Wallace), Lukaku (78' Germoni), Parolo (71' Leitner), Biglia (69' Cataldi), Milinkovic-Savic (71' Lombardi), Kishna (69' Djordjevic), Immobile (78' Oikonomidis), Keita (71' Morrison)
Manager: S.Inzaghi
Referee: Börner
What happened next
Lazio then signed defender Bastos (Rostov) and then, on the last day of the transfer market, midfielder Luis Alberto (Liverpool).
In August they said goodbye to Eddy Onazi (Trabzonspor), Antonio Candreva (Inter), Mauricio (Spartak Moscow) and Etrit Berisha (Atalanta).
In January Morrison left (QPR on loan) along with a disappointing Kishna (Lille) and Moritz Leitner (Augusta).
Lazio had a good season and finished 5th (Europa League). They won a league derby after four years (3-1) and eliminated Roma in the Coppa Italia semi-final too (4-3 on aggregate) but then lost the final 0-2 to Juventus. The top scorer was Ciro Immobile with 26 goals (23 in league).
Borussia MG got through the CL playoff winning 9-2 on aggregate. In the group phase they then won 1 (Celtic 2-0), drew 2 (Celtic and Man City both 1-1) and lost 3 (Barcelona 1-2 and 0-5 and Man City 0-4) and were eliminated.
They were relegated to the Europa League where they defeated Fiorentina 4-3 on aggregate but then in the last 16 lost the German derby with Schalke 04 on away goals.
In the Bundesliga "Die Mythen" finished 9th while in the DFB they reached the semi-finals but lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt. In late December the manager Schubert was replaced by Dieter Hecking. The top scorer was Lars Stindl with 18 goals (11 in league).
Yann Sommer would one day defend the posts for Inter while Andreas Christensen would play for Chelseas and Barcelona.
Serie A was won by Juventus for the 33rd time while Bayern Munich won their 27th title in Germany.
A Brief history of Borussia Mönchengladbach
The club's full name is Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 Mönchengladbach, but are usually known as Borussia Mönchengladbach or simply Gladbach.
Mönchengladbach is a town in the west of Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of 260,000 inhabitants. The nearest really big town is Dusseldorf.
Their colours are White, Black and Green (the latter from the 1970's) and from 2004 play in Stadion im Borussia-Park with a capacity of 54,000. Until 2004 they played in the Bökelbergstadion (known as Westdeutsches Stadion in the 60's). This was a small ground so sometimes they had to play in nearby Dusseldorf.
They have various nicknames Die Fohlen (The Foals), Die Elf Vom Niederrhein (The team of the lower Rhine) and Die Mythen (The Legends).
They were founded in 1900 and for many years played in the lower German divisions. They had their first success in 1960-61 when they won the German Cup beating Karlsruhe 3-2. They then reached the quarter finals of the Cup Winners Cup.
In 1962 they had their first player participating in a World Cup, Albert Brülls in Chile 1962.
In 1964-65 Gladbach were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. The manager was Hennes Weisweiler, he would remain until 1975.
There followed some good years with 13th, 8th, 3rd and 3rd places and in 1969-70 Gladbach won their first league title. The stars were keeper Wolfgang Kleff, defenders Berti Vogts, Hartwig Bleidick, Ludwig Müller, Klaus -Dieter Sieloff, midfielders Günter Netzer, Peter Dietrich, Winfried Schäfer plus forwards Horst Köppel, Herbert Laumen and Herbert Wimmer. Top scorer was Laumen with 21.
In 1970-71 they won the title again. Key new players were midfielder Rainer Bonhof and striker Jupp Heynckes (he would later have a great coaching career).
The 70's were Gladbach' s glory years. In 1971-72 they finished 3rd, in 1972-73 5th but won the German Cup and reached the UEFA Cup final ( losing 2-3 on aggregate to Liverpool), in 1973-74 2nd and reached the semi-finals of the Cup Winners Cup.
In the summer of 1974 five of their players won the World Cup with West Germany; Wolfgang Kleff, Herbert Wimmer, Berti Vogts, Rainer Bonhof and Jupp Heynckes while Netzer had already gone to Real Madrid.
In 1974-75 they won the league again and also won the UEFA Cup (Twente 5-1 on aggregate). Jupp Heynckes was top Bundesliga goal scorer.
In 1975-76 the Udo Lattek era started and they were confirmed as champions and then again in 1976-77, making it three in a row. In May 1977 they played the European Cup final in Rome against Liverpool but lost 1-3. I was present at the game in the Liverpool end and despite not being a fan I was supporting the Reds but was impressed by the German fans. One of their players, Danish Allan Simonsen won the Golden Ball that year.
In 1977-78 they finished 2nd and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup. They set a record winning score in the Bundesliga defeating Borussia Dortmund 12-0.
In 1978-79 they finished 10th but won the UEFA CUP again defeating Red Star Belgrade 2-1 on aggregate.
In 1979 Jupp Heynckes became manager until 1987. They finished 7th and were runners up in the UEFA Cup losing to compatriots Eintracht Frankfurt on away goals.
In the 1980's came a slight decline but they were still competitive with 6th, 7th, 12th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 7th, and 6th places. In 1987 Uwe Rahn was top Bundesliga goal scorer. In 1987 until 1989 Wolf Werner became manager.
The 90's saw Gladbach lose some of their strength. They finished 15th, 9th, 13th, 9th,10th, 5th,4th, 11th, 15th and in 1998-98 were relegated to Zweite Bundesliga (2nd tier). In these years however, in 1995, they won their third German Cup defeating Wolfsburg 3-0.
In 2000-01 Gladbach were promoted back to the Bundesliga, under manager Hans Meyer. They however struggled and after 12th, 12th, 11th, 15th and 10th places, in 2006-07 they were relegated again.
They bounced straight back up under Dutch manager Jos Luhukay and have been in the top flight ever since. Their best seasons were 4th in 2011-12, 3rd in 2014-15 and 4th in 2019-20. They have never fought for the title again but sometimes play in Europe (reached UCL last 16 in 2020-21) and are more often than not mid-table finishers. In the last three seasons they have finished 14th, 10th and 12th in 2025-26.
Borussia Mönchengladbach are one of the most supported teams in Germany. A curious fact is that they have an official band, a punk rock group called B.O. The music at the stadium is almost exclusively theirs, as well as the supporters chants, so the fans are spared some of the awful commercial stuff that is blasted out in other stadiums.
The organised fans, the Fohlenfan, are twinned with Liverpool and also have special friendships with Mainz and Carl Zeiss Jena. Their sworn enemies are nearby Cologne and also Alemannia Aachen.
So all in all one of the bigger German clubs. Gladbach are the only club, along with Borussia Dortmund, to have the two stars on their shirts for winning five league titles. Bayern Munich, the biggest club in Germany, have 5 stars but that's another story.
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