Bundesliga: Gladbach Amble To Win Over Paderborn

Lucien Favre's side responded to European heartache in midweek by picking up an easy 2-0 win over Paderborn. The plucky underdogs are now in the relegation zone.

A first-half Fabian Johnson goal and a second-half one by Patrick Herrmann, both deflected, were enough to secure Gladbach a league win 72 hours after they exited the Europa League.



Coach Lucien Favre made five changes to the side after its frustrating home defeat to Sevilla. Thorgan Hazard, Herrmann and Max Kruse all started on the bench.



Meanwhile, three new faces came in for Paderborn after their 6-0 hammering by Bayern Munich last weekend. Srdjan Lakic, Daniel Brückner and Moritz Stoppelkamp returned for Andre Breitenreiter's side.



Most of the opening exchanges was dominated by Gladbach, but the lack of chances was reflective of their recent Bundesliga form. Johnson tried his luck early on from long range, while Raffael saw his shot blocked and cleared inside the first quarter of an hour.



Paderborn's Lukas Kruse was beaten on 17 minutes when Johnson's shot from the edge of the box took a deflection off Patrick Ziegler and wrong-footed the Paderborn keeper.



The remaining 28 minutes of the half were something of a non-event: Gladbach conjured up a handful of other chances, the most notable effort from Branimir Hrgota who forced Kruse to punch clear.



Kruse was alert to prevent Raffael from scoring a second goal from the hosts in the 46th minute before the visitors eventually moved into their best spell of the game. Alban Meha let it rip from the best part of 25 yards and forced a nice save from Yann Sommer.



Yet Paderborn's defense and Kruse could do nothing but watch Herrmann's deflected shot trickle into the net with nine minutes of the match to play. The result solidifies Gladbach's hold on third place. Paderborn are third from bottom.