MOENCHENGLADBACH, Germany — Raffael scored twice for Borussia Moenchengladbach to move to fourth in the Bundesliga with a 3-1 win over Hamburger SV on Friday.
"I’m very satisfied with the opening half of the season. We’re right in the mix," Moenchengladbach coach Dieter Hecking said. "But we need to be more consistent in the second half."
Hamburg, which remains in the relegation zone, was pushing for the winner when Raffael capitalized on an intercepted pass from Kyriakos Papadopoulos to restore ‘Gladbach’s lead in the 74th minute, and he made sure of the win with his second, from close range, five minutes later.
‘Gladbach made a brilliant start and duly went ahead through Thorgan Hazard inside the first 10 minutes.
But the visitors fought back and would have equalized but for a goal-line clearance from Lars Stindl.
Hazard should have scored again in the second half when he was denied by a fine save from Christian Mathenia, and he was to rue the loss minutes later when Andre Hahn scored against his former club. Aaron Hunt played a brilliant pass for Hahn to run onto and equalize.
Hamburg coach Markus Gisdol was frustrated to be left empty-handed after a good game from his side.
"I can’t hear that we’re doing something right anymore" Gisdol said. "We have 15 points, far too few. We’re making the simplest mistakes. If we don’t correct them, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to get through the season."
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