Borussia Mönchengladbach played badly at VfL Bochum for a long time - but still scored the equalizer shortly before the end. But the joy doesn't last long. Because the referee has recognized a complicated offside position. The Gladbachers are outraged.
After Rami Bensebaini's late goal, Borussia Mönchengladbach first cheered and then got angry. According to the video images, referee Daniel Schlager took back the supposed compensation – due to offside. It remained at 2:1 (2:0) for VfL Bochum. Captain Christoph Kramer spoke of a "stolen goal", coach Daniel Farke of "regular compensation that was not given".
Schlager had decided that assist provider Jonas Hofmann had been offside in front of the cross - although the ball had come from Bochum central defender Vasilios Lampropoulos. In the referee's opinion, the Greek hadn't played the ball in a controlled manner, which got Kramer upset: "Everyone is wondering: What happened there? And there's someone sitting in the Cologne basement and saying: That was an uncontrolled game. That's possible not," said the captain, "I can throw the ball to you like this, if you hit it it's controlled, if you don't hit it it's uncontrolled? That doesn't make any sense."
"I looked at it. If I take off the Gladbach glasses and put on the VfL Bochum glasses, it's still a stolen goal. There are no two opinions," said Kramer, who once played for VfL himself played. Meanwhile, Farke spoke of an "underground refereeing performance, whereby I have to include the entire team". Video evidence was needed when Bochum scored the opening goal: First, assistant referee Sven Waschitzki-Günther saw Christopher Antwi-Adjei offside. Bochum's coach Thomas Letsch said: "I'm glad that I'm a coach and not a referee."
Farke, however, saw other reasons for the defeat. The coach sharply criticized his weak team for a long time. "I didn't agree at all with our first half - especially the first 25 minutes," said Farke. "We didn't do everything we set out to do here. The whole mentality wasn't courageous. I found us discouraged, I found us lazy to walk, I didn't think we were fast at all mentally."
Bochum had already led 2-0 after twelve minutes on Tuesday evening. Farke confirmed: "I found us just lazy to run and too lazy to go into the duels, too lazy to secure the depth." After the break, Farke saw his team improve. "I think a compliment deserves the reaction we showed in the second half, despite the defeat," he said. Gladbach only managed to get a goal through Alassane Pléa because Bensbaini's goal didn't count.
