Despite playing a man down for more than fifty minutes, BVB held strong for a 2-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach at Westfalenstadion. Die Schwarzgelben can enjoy the winter break with sitting in sixth place only three points behind Bayer Leverkusen and Jürgen Klopp can hold his head high with brilliant leadership.With little ground being given up without a challenge, scoring opportunities were at a minimum until with ten minutes remaining in the half Egyptian international Mohamed Zidan got in-between a Steve Gohouri headed attempt and drove the ball into the net from twenty-two meters.
BVB's challenges were increased as Hungary's player of the year, Tamás Hajnal was excused with his second yellow-card due to a challenge of 'Gladbach goalkeeper Christofer Heimeroth. Ten minutes after the restart BVB was up 2-0 as Polish international Jakub Błaszczykowski passed to Nuri Sahin, who was wide open at the top of the box with Sahin firing into the back of the goal. Through the balance of the match 'Gladback maintained most of the ball possession but it was generally out of the final third of the pitch.
'Gladbach's intensity increased after the hour and were denied a goal as Roman Weidenfeller spectacularly saved Rob Friend's header after the hour mark. At the eightieth minute they cut the margin in half as Johannes van den Bergh volleyed from the edge of the area but that would be as close as it could get. Jakub Błaszczykowski could have added the third goal just as regulation time was concluding as he shot from long-range to a open goal, vacated by Gladbach ‘keeper Christofer Heimeroth who had come forward in a effort to score off a corner. Gladbach as expected put forth a brilliant effort, one that you know they always will but were unable to break through an swarming defense.
