Elversberg score three unanswered to beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-3 in a seven-goal thriller

Borussia Mönchengladbach led 3-1 with half an hour to go at Borussia-Park and still lost. Newly promoted SV Elversberg scored three unanswered goals in the final half hour — the last of them in the second minute of stoppage time — to win 4-3 — their second straight Bundesliga win to open the season, and their first away from home, in a competition they had never played in before this summer.

A 3-1 lead undone in half an hour

Hugo Bolin headed Gladbach in front in the 11th minute from a Franck Honorat corner, and David Mokwa answered for Elversberg on the counter-attack in the 29th. Bolin restored the home side's lead just before the break, finishing off another Honorat pass, and Joe Scally made it 3-1 early in the second half after winning the ball back in midfield himself. From there, Gladbach did not score again. Maurice Krattenmacher, on as a substitute, headed in from close range in the 66th minute, Felix Keidel curled a free-kick from around 25 yards into the top corner in the 80th to level it at 3-3, and Krattenmacher struck again in the second minute of stoppage time, turning in a low ball from fellow substitute Noel Futkeu for the winner.

Goal timeline

The expected-goals numbers were close to level — 2.74 for Gladbach against 2.56 for Elversberg — a reminder that this was less a collapse than a match Elversberg kept threatening throughout, even while behind. The visitors had fewer shots overall (14 to 20) but more on target (10 to 6), a sharper conversion that shows up in the final score. Gladbach won far more corners, 13 to 4, without turning the extra set pieces into more goals, and it was the home side who fouled more too, 18 to 9.

Match stats

Gladbach picked up three yellow cards on the day, all after the hour — Mathieu Nguefack (79'), Kevin Diks (89') and Hugo Bolin, booked in first-half stoppage time — plus one for Elversberg's Amara Condé in the 89th minute. The match's only red card, though, went to the away technical area, not the pitch: Elversberg head coach Vincent Wagner was sent off in first-half stoppage time, a second yellow for storming onto the field to protest the throw-in decision that led directly to Bolin's second goal. Wagner watched the rest of the comeback from the stands. The automatic touchline ban that followed was later overturned by the German FA ahead of Elversberg's next home fixture, against Bayern Munich, after the referee was found to have made a clear error on the call.

Line-ups

• Borussia Mönchengladbach (4-4-2): Nicolas — Diks, Itakura, Ullrich, Scally — Honorat, Sander, Nguefack, Mohya — Bolin, Kleindienst

• SV Elversberg (4-2-3-1): Kristof — Pinckert, Günther, Gyamerah, Rohr — Keidel, Poręba, Petkov, Onyeka — Campbell, Mokwa

Krattenmacher off the bench again

Krattenmacher, 21, took the Man of the Match award with 34% of the fan vote for his two late goals. He came up through Bayern Munich's academy after starting out at TuS Bad Aibling and SpVgg Unterhaching, then spent last season on loan at Hertha BSC before joining newly promoted Elversberg this summer — the kind of unheralded move that only pays off publicly on afternoons like this one, coming off the bench to score the goals that beat a Bundesliga regular away from home.

Contrasting starts

Both sides arrived at this one off the back of contrasting opening weekends. Gladbach had lost their opener 0-3 away to RB Leipzig; Elversberg, playing their first-ever Bundesliga match, had beaten Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 at home. This result extended the pattern in opposite directions. Gladbach's next two matchdays brought a 0-5 defeat away to Freiburg and a 3-4 home loss to Mainz — their second 3-4 scoreline in three matchdays — leaving them still without a point after four games. Elversberg, by contrast, followed the comeback with a narrow 1-2 defeat at home to Bayern Munich, Krattenmacher scoring again with a stunning strike that briefly levelled it, and then a 0-0 draw away to Schalke, taking their tally to two wins, a defeat and a draw from their first four Bundesliga matches as a promoted club.