BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH

Germany’s sleeping giants on the rise

Little wonder, Gladbach supporters swear by coach Marco Rose. Last season, his first in charge of the Foals, the 44-year-old barely made a bad call, steering them to an excellent fourthplace in the Bundesliga – their best classification since 2014-15. Roses were blooming all over at Borussia Park in 2019-20. Twenty wins out of 34 top-flight fixtures, bags of dynamic attacking football and, as the cherry on the cake, the club’s first Champions League in four years. Gladbach have only participated in two previous campaigns at this level, but with the inspirational Rose at the helm they will be a tough nut to crack. Rose, for one, has no intention of resting on his laurels: “We’ve set the bar high. Now we want to take the next step. There’s plenty of room for further gains.”

The bad news concerns their injury list. New Austrian right-sided midfielder Valentino Lazaro – brought in on loan from Internazionale – could miss the early Champions League dates with a calf complaint, while Swiss engineroom powerhouse Denis Zakaria may be a little rusty after a long knee rehabilitation process.