Gladbach vs. Heidenheim preview: Hosts targeting first home victory
Borussia Mönchengladbach will attempt to claim their first home win of the Bundesliga season when they welcome Heidenheim to Borussia-Park on Saturday.
Gladbach
Gerardo Seoane has experienced a difficult start to his tenure as Gladbach boss, winning just one of his opening eight league games. After taking two points from their first five matches of the season, Gladbach finally claimed maximum points in their away meeting with Bochum at the end of September. However, they have failed to build upon that result, picking up just one point from their last two outings.
They required a late Joe Scally equaliser to draw 2-2 with basement side Mainz, before they suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat against Köln in last Sunday’s Rhine derby. Nico Elvedi had levelled the contest at one goal apiece after Florian Kainz opened the scoring from the penalty spot. However, Manu Koné made Gladbach's task a lot tougher when he was given his marching orders just after the hour mark. With the numerical advantage in their favour, Köln subsequently retook the lead through another Kainz spot-kick, and the contest was put out of Gladbach’s reach when Luca Waldschmidt found the net in the 90th minute.
Having found wins hard to come by, die Fohlen are currently in 13th position, with two points separating them from the bottom three. As one of three teams yet to win a Bundesliga home game this season, Gladbach need to improve in front of their own supporters if they are to start climbing the league table.
Team News
Seoane is having to contend with a lengthy injury list, which includes Jonas Omlin, Yvandro Borges Sanches, Ko Itakura, Tony Jantschke, Tobias Sippel and Hannes Wolf. Meanwhile, Koné is suspended after being sent off last weekend.
Heidenheim
With Heidenheim expected to be involved in a relegation battle, they will be pleased to be sitting in 11th place with seven points to their name after eight matches. They began their first-ever Bundesliga season with two defeats and a draw, before they picked up two victories in three games. However, since beating Union Berlin at the end of September, Heidenheim have gone on to lose back-to-back games to Eintracht Frankfurt and Augsburg.
They would have been particularly disappointed with last weekend’s home game against Augsburg after they gave up a two-goal lead to lose by 5-2. Tim Kleindienst and Jan-Niklas Beste scored within 60 seconds of one another to put their side 2-0 up after 18 minutes. However, the Fuggerstädter scored three quick-fire goals to turn the contest on its head before half-time. Two more Augsburg goals followed in the second half to compound a miserable outing for Frank Schmidt’s side.
Heidenheim will now head on their travels, as they attempt to claim their first-ever away victory in the Bundesliga, having taken just one point from their opening four away matches.
Team News
The visitors have reported no fresh injury concerns, but they are still unable to call upon Elidon Qenaj due to a knee injury.