Erling Haaland against Marcus Thuram will be the main attraction when Borussia Mönchengladbach host Borussia Dortmund on Friday, and that’s the battle of two of the Bundesliga’s brightest attacking talents as they go head-to-head.
bundesliga.com looks at how some of the major battles will shape up at Borussia-Park.
Only leaders Bayern Munich have found the net more times than Borrusia Dortmund this season, and Haaland is a 6’3″-sized reason behind that.
The Norway international, blessed with a sang froid in front of goal drained from a frozen fjord, has 12 goals in just 12 Bundesliga appearances giving him more than a third of his team’s 33 top-flight strikes this season. And you thought his start to life in Dortmund last season was fast with 10 goals in his first 11 league matches….As teammate Gio Reyna has said, “Just look at the numbers.”
Haaland’s stats are not the only reason he is so important to Dortmund. When he missed four games with a muscle injury between Matchdays 10 and 14, he watched his teammates pick up just four points.
“He was missing for a couple of weeks, and you noticed that in Dortmund’s play and Dortmund’s mentality on the pitch,” explained German football legend Lothar Matthäus after seeing Haaland fire two goals in BVB’s Matchday 15 defeat of RB Leipzig, the forward’s second game back after injury. “He’s a machine. He’s a tornado that blows you over.”
Thuram’s trajectory since arriving in Germany has been almost as spectacular as that of Haaland.
“Borussia allowed me to take the next steps in my career; I play in the Champions League and made it into the national team,” explained the 23-year-old France international. “And in Gladbach I’ve grown not only as a player, but as a person. Borussia was the best choice for my career.”
There were 10 goals and eight assists in his maiden season, which was cut short by an ankle injury. That layoff perhaps explains the sluggish start Thuram has made to the current campaign with just two goals and a single assist so far.
His lengthy suspension following his red card against Hoffenheim comes to an end just in time to face Dortmund – Gladbach will need him to hit the ground scoring if they are to much up to Haaland and BVB.
