Three wins in competitive matches, including the euphoria of reaching the next cup round: VfL Bochum is on a high. Perhaps this can now even lead to the promoted team becoming dangerous to the team that disgraced FC Bayern in the cup – Borussia Mönchengladbach.
The 0:3 in Leipzig on 2 October didn’t give the Bochum side, who were in penultimate place in the table at the time with just four points, any autumn blues, on the contrary. At the end of the month, it has to be said that it was a golden October for VfL, who were able to gain some breathing space in the relegation battle in the league with two 1-0 wins over Fürth and Frankfurt and, as the icing on the cake, achieved something memorable in the cup against FC Augsburg on Wednesday evening.
He came on as a substitute after 118 minutes, didn’t save any of his opponents’ attempts in the penalty shoot-out, but converted the decisive one himself: The heroic story that VfL Bochum wrote in the 5:4 i.E. against Augsburg with goalkeeper Manuel Riemann in the protagonist role goes down in DFB Cup history.
Can VfL now surprise the team that made history on Wednesday with a 5-0 win over FC Bayern? Borussia Mönchengladbach is the name of Bochum’s next opponent, who will be visiting the Niederrhein on Sunday and are naturally keen to take the momentum from the last few games with them.
The promoted team seems to be solid at the moment, even numerous personnel changes did not cause any loss of substance against Augsburg. Coach Thomas Reis made no less than six (!) changes to the starting eleven compared to the game three days earlier against Eintracht Frankfurt, and many of them worked out perfectly.
Six changes, six direct hits
Milos Pantovic: He took over the starting eleven from Eduard Löwen – and scored twice. The kicker gave him a mark of 1.5 – the midfielder was named player of the match.
Konstantinos Stafylidis (kicker grade 2): The Greek, actually a left-back, replaced Cristian Gamboa on the right side of defence – and stood out with extremely robust tackling, uncompromising tackles, clearing headers, consistent clearing shots and, last but not least, sharp crosses, such as the one that led to the 1:0.
Michael Esser (kicker grade 2): The goalkeeper took over for regular keeper Riemann and showed a stable performance for 118 minutes in his first competitive match this season. He prevented a deficit in three situations in particular: against André Hahn (8th) and twice in injury time against Michael Gregoritsch (104th, 113th).
Gerrit Holtmann (kicker grade 3): He played instead of Danny Blum on the wing, was always agile, eager to run and determined and basically had what it takes to be the match-winner. However, more precision in his offensive actions would have been necessary.
Christopher Antwi-Adjei (kicker grade 3.5): He also played on the wing (instead of Takuma Asano) and got into the game well. Later he slackened a bit, but showed until his substitution after about an hour that he can set positive accents.
Armel Bella Kotchap (kicker grade 4): He replaced Vasilios Lampropoulos in central defence next to Erhan Masovic and won around 75 per cent of his duels. If he now becomes even more stable and confident in his actions, he can once again become a permanent starting eleven alternative.
