Coach Daniel Farke explained the 5-1 defeat of Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga at Werder Bremen with injured players in the starting XI.

“Of the guys who played, some had injury problems.

And overnight there were some stories that weren't beneficial," revealed the 45-year-old on Sky.

According to Farke, goalkeeper Yann Sommer "had thrown up all night" and his commitment was questionable until the whistle on Saturday evening.

In addition, Nico Elvedi would have played “with a broken nose” and Ramy Bensebaini “with ankle problems”.

"Lost every duel"

As an excuse, the Gladbach coach did not want to accept this.

"Now, when I put it all out like this, it sounds like an apology and self-pity.

But the boys played, and when they play, they have to deliver," said Farke, who struggled with the early 0:3 deficit in a catastrophic early phase: "In the first 20 minutes we didn't feel like we were on the pitch at all .” At the beginning his team “lost every duel” and tactically “didn't do what we wanted to do at all”.

Nevertheless, he deliberately avoided substitutions in the half-time break when the score was 0:4.

"To give the boys a chance to show a direct reaction," explained Farke: "It was about playing a good second half and conceding as little as possible." Borussia managed that, which is why the coach didn't push too hard wanted to judge his players.

Not even with the unlucky Bensebaini, who scored an own goal (37th) to make it 4-0 and made a catastrophic mistake before the 3-0.

The Algerian had "a used day", said Farke, "but before that he was outstanding." Gladbach has the chance to make amends in next Sunday's Rhine derby against 1. FC Köln.

Vollkrug is celebrated at Werder

The Werder fans, on the other hand, were happy and sang "Lücke für Deutschland!", record national player Lothar Matthäus raved about a "fantastic" performance - but the celebrated and highly praised Niclas Füllkrug preferred to keep the ball flat.

"Of course I'm very happy when people like Lothar Matthäus or others who know football praise my game and think I'm doing it well," said the Bremen striker, who called "gap" in Bremen because of his prominent tooth gap will, after his two goals, win 5-1 at Sky.

The 29-year-old has already scored seven goals this season – only Rudi Völler (8) in the Werder jersey was even more successful in the 1985/86 season after eight Bundesliga match days.

"Rudi Völler was a good guy," said Füllkrug with a smile.

He currently leads the Bundesliga scorer list and could possibly solve the national team's problems in the nineth position.

"Hansi Flick is not blind, he sees it too.

He will take a striker with the advantages that Niclas has," said Matthäus.

Füllkrug himself explains his leap in performance by saying that he has remained largely injury-free for two or three years.

It is therefore "no coincidence that I can now call up my performance", he said: "But you always need a great team." He didn't want to comment on whether he could also show that in the national team.

"Everything else is out of my hands.

I try to perform like I'm doing right now."