Berlin (AFP)

Thuram doubled against Real Madrid, Pléa hat-trick on Tuesday against Shakhtar Donetsk (6-0), and a first group place for Mönchengladbach in the Champions League: Borussia and its French gunner duo is the team in form in Europe this fall.

For connoisseurs of German football, however, the surprise is not really one: coach Marco Rose is a rising star and the French duo Marcus Thuram - Alassane Pléa did not wait for the Champions League to put on the goals like pearls.

- "French connection" -

In three C1 matches, Thuram and Pléa, "Tikus" and "Lasso" for their teammates, have scored five goals between them and delivered six assists.

"It was a beautiful evening with my first hat-trick in the Champions League," said Pléa in Donetsk, served by Thuram on the 6-0 goal.

A week earlier, they alone had nearly brought great Real to their knees, when Thuram scored twice on two serves from Pléa, allowing M'Gladbach to lead 2-0 until the 87th minute.

The Spaniards came down to 2-2 in added time.

Marco Rose, their coach, wishes to preserve his two scorers from the pressure: "Yes, they score goals, we are happy, but we should not make a mega-story", he relativizes: "All two are good guys, hard working and also get along really well off the pitch. "

- Pléa, unknown in France -

At 27, the player trained in Lyon, then passed through Auxerre and Nice, missed the France team, with whom he only played once (10 minutes in a friendly against Uruguay in 2018).

But Germany succeeds him: increased in power upon his arrival (12 goals in the Bundesliga 2018-2019), he took on a new dimension last year, when Thuram arrived.

He finished the championship in June with ten goals, but also ten assists.

Almost the same statistic as his young 23-year-old teammate (10 goals and 8 assists).

Their winning association lifted Mönchengladbach to fourth place, synonymous with tickets to the Champions League, behind the untouchable "Big Three" (Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Leipzig).

- Thuram, first name Marcus -

The son of 1998 world champion Lilian Thuram has definitely made a name for himself.

International French hope, he was one of the revelations of the Bundesliga last year, where his physical power (1.92 m) works wonders, especially since he has a rare explosiveness for a player of his size.

On the sidelines of football, his photo knee on the ground to celebrate a goal, on May 31, has been around the world.

He then became the first footballer to pay tribute with this symbolic gesture to George Floyd, the African-American father killed by the police at the end of May in Minneapolis, in the United States.

Borussia claims to have received in the following days "dozens" of interview requests for its star player.

- Rose, the rising German coach -

The two friends benefit from the freedom given to them by Marco Rose, on the way to becoming a new star coach in Germany, whose name is already circulating to take over from Lucien Favre in Dortmund next season.

A follower of attacking football like his Leipzig counterpart Julian Nagelsmann, he also exudes, at 44, a serenity reminiscent of Hansi Flick, the Bayern coach.

Although little experienced at European level, he understood that the knockout stages of the C1 were still far away: "I am not in favor of giving in to the wave of euphoria", he said after the 6- 0 from Donetsk, "we haven't achieved anything yet. We are in the lead halfway through, the next three matches will be decisive," he said, while Mönchengladbach is first in Group B with 5 points ahead of Donetsk ( 4 pts).

Real (4 pts) and Inter (2 pts), logical favorites of the group, have to worry about.

© 2020 AFP