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Journalism of Courage
Borussia Mönchengladbach captain Lars Stindl missed a penalty and the team’s losing streak stretched to six games across all competitions at Augsburg in a 3-1 Bundesliga defeat on Friday.
Gladbach has lost every game since the club announced that coach Marco Rose will be joining league rival Borussia Dortmund next season.
The latest defeat will strengthen fans’ calls to let him go before Tuesday’s Champions League game against Manchester City. Gladbach has a two-goal deficit to make up against City from the first leg of their last-16 tie.
“We’d rather have a week’s training to prepare for the core tasks at the moment, namely points in the Bundesliga,” said Rose, whose team looks likely to lose further ground in the race for European qualification places.
Stindl’s penalty miss was the visitors’ biggest chance in a first half that they dominated.
Highlights:
Raphael Framberger conceded the spot kick in the 37th minute for a foul on Marcus Thuram, but Stindl shot to the left of the goal.
“The penalty miss is on my head,” Stindl said. “I feel sorry for the guys because we always invested so much and simply didn’t get any reward.”
Gladbach was to rue the miss early in the second half when Ruben Vargas arrived with pace and powered home a header from a corner.
“Despite the goal we didn’t hide, but we still believed in ourselves,” Stindl said.
Gladbach had had 65% possession and 16 goal efforts to the home team’s seven.
But Marco Richter scored against the run of play in the 76th with only Augsburg’s third shot on target, and André Hahn confirmed his former team’s fate on a counterattack in the 89th.
“It’s so bitter,” Gladbach scorer Florian Neuhaus said. “It’s getting on my nerves I have to say.”
Rose’s team remained 10th.
Augsburg moved 10 points clear of the relegation zone.
