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Gladbach opts for coach Hecking as Bayern stays top
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BORUSSIA Moenchengladbach is placing its faith in former VfL Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking for the second half of the season.
The struggling German Bundesliga club, which parted ways with Andre Schubert as coach on Wednesday, announced yesterday that the 52-year-old Hecking has signed a deal to June 2019 and will be presented to the media on January 4.
“After the developments of the last weeks we want to give a new impetus with a new coach,” sporting director Max Eberl said. “That’s why Dieter Hecking is exactly the right man, a coach with lots of experience who has worked successfully with various clubs at different levels.”
Hecking was sacked by Wolfsburg earlier in the season after claiming just one win and six points from seven matches.
However, the former Nuremberg coach oversaw steady progress after taking charge at Wolfsburg before Christmas in 2012. Under Hecking, Wolfsburg won the German Cup and finished runner-up to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga in 2015, notching a 4-1 win over the champion. It reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League last season, losing to eventual champion Real Madrid.
Five-time Bundesliga champion and twice UEFA Cup winner Gladbach is 14th in the table with 16 points, three above Hamburg SV which occupies the relegation playoff spot. It has claimed only one win from its last 11 competitive games.
“A second half of the season awaits us with difficult but also attractive challenges in the Bundesliga, German Cup and in the Europa League. We’re looking forward to getting to grips with them with Dieter Hecking,” Eberl said.
On Wednesday, Bayern Munich eased to a comfortable 3-0 victory over promoted RB Leipzig in their top-of-the-table clash to claim the Bundesliga’s unofficial title of ‘autumn champion’ before the winter break.
“We wanted to send a signal,” Bayern captain Philipp Lahm said.
The two sides had been level going into their 16th-round showdown, with Leipzig, boasting the league’s best away record, quietly confident of causing another upset to round off a remarkable first half-season of top-flight football.
Only founded in 2009, Leipzig was promoted as second-division runner-up last season but surprised many by making the best ever start for a new team in the Bundesliga.
But the visitors were already two goals down when their hopes were virtually extinguished with Emil Forsberg’s sending off for a dangerous lunge in the 30th minute.
“We all make mistakes,” Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuettl said. “It didn’t go as we imagined it would.”
Thiago Alcantara opened the scoring inside 20 minutes, when he arrived at the right time to convert from close range with his thigh after Robert Lewandowski’s initial effort hit the right post.
Bayern had more shots on goal, more possession and was winning more tackles than the visiting side.
Xabi Alonso made Bayern’s dominance count minutes later. Naby Keita, a key player for Leipzig, lost the ball to Arturo Vidal, and it went through Lewandowski and then Thiago, who set up a rare goal from open play for Alonso.
Leipzig’s task grew harder when Forsberg was sent off for a bad challenge on Lahm.
Lewandowski made it 3-0 with a penalty before the break after Leipzig ‘keeper Gulacsi brought down Douglas Costa. It meant Lewandowski has scored against every Bundesliga club, the only active player to do so.
Bayern, on 39 points, now leads Leipzig by three points, with third-place Hertha Berlin six points further back at the season’s halfway stage.
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