Young Boys v Mönchengladbach background
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Article summary
The play-off first leg between Young Boys and Borussia Mönchengladbach will be the teams' second meeting in a month, though this time the stakes are significantly higher.
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Borussia Mönchengladbach make the 475km journey to Berne for their UEFA Champions League play-off opener, with Young Boys hoping to earn a first crack at the group stage.
Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in a competitive game, but their paths crossed as recently as 13 July when they drew 3-3 in a friendly, Thorgan Hazard scoring twice for Mönchengladbach.
• Young Boys have played 11 UEFA matches against clubs from the 'Big Canton' with the record W2 D5 L4 (W2 D2 L2 at home – W0 D3 L2 in Germany). Those matches include a 2-1 win against Wismut Aue in a 1958/59 European Cup quarter-final replay played on neutral territory in Amsterdam.
• Gladbach's only official encounters against Swiss opponents are a 1-1 away draw and a 3-0 home victory against Zürich in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League group stage.
Match background
• Young Boys eliminated group stage regulars Shakhtar Donetsk on penalties in the third qualifying round.
• Their only previous UEFA Champions League play-off ended in a 6-3 aggregate loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the 2010/11 competition.
• Mönchengladbach lost to Dynamo Kyiv in their sole previous UEFA Champions League play-off, in 2012/13.
Team and coach links
• Mönchengladbach's Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer has played against Young Boys for Basel, Grasshoppers (loan) and Vaduz (loan) in the Super League, his record reading W8 D6 L4.
• YB's Steve von Bergen played alongside Ibrahima Traoré and Raffael during his three seasons at Hertha Berlin from 2007 to 2010.
• Von Bergen and Raffael also played together for Zürich from 2005 to 2007.
• Gladbach's Swiss striker Josip Drmić played alongside YB's Scott Sutter and Loris Benito at Zürich.
• Gladbach's Sommer and Nico Elvedi were team-mates of Von Bergen and Denis Zakaria in Switzerland's UEFA EURO 2016 squad.
• Djibril Sow was born in Switzerland and played for Zürich's youth teams before joining Mönchengladbach in summer 2015.
Coach profiles
• Young Boys are coached by Austrian Adi Hütter, who steered them to a second-place finish in the Swiss Super League last term, his first season at the helm. The former midfielder guided Salzburg to an Austrian double the previous campaign, having made his name during spells at Altach and Grödig in his homeland.
• Hired initially as a caretaker following Lucien Favre's departure in September 2015, André Schubert led Mönchengladbach to a fourth-place finish in the Bundesliga. A specialist youth coach for much of his career, he had been in charge of Paderborn, St Pauli and Germany Under-15s before taking up the post.