Gladbach celebrate Groundhog Day after upsetting Bayern yet again

B orussia Mönchengladbach’s social media team couldn’t resist it. As the final whistle blew on their result of the season – the result, probably, of most seasons – there was a post to acknowledge the victory over Bayern Munich. Then straight away there was a still of Bill Murray’s misanthropic TV reporter Phil Connors, waiting for Punxsutawney Phil to pop his furry head out of the hatch, with no further comment. This was their, and the champions’, Groundhog Day. Because even against the inevitable Bayern, Die Fohlen have been here before.

Unbeaten in their last five meetings, only lost two of the last nine, won seven of the last 13 – whichever way you frame it, Gladbach know how to get the best of Bayern better than any of their Bundesliga rivals. Last season, the nearest the Rekordmeister has to a bogey team even dumped them out of the DfB Pokal in jaw-droppingly emphatic style, with Borussia winning 5-0 at Borussia-Park.

But here, now, at this moment, in this shape? After a season that began with promise under Daniel Farke and began to fizzle out in a deluge of inconsistency? After an exodus began to take shape, with Marcus Thuram, accomplished defender Ramy Bensabaïni and veteran striker (and captain) Lars Stindl all out of contract at the season’s end? After Farke himself publicly trashed Gladbach’s hopes of achieving European football this season in the press conference before this game?

One had already gone, and arguably the crown jewel at that. Yann Sommer grasped his opportunity, and few even of a Borussia persuasion would have begrudged him. The hardcore certainly didn’t. A banner on the Kurve before kick-off thanked him for “eight-and-a-half years of big performances, not big words” as he returned to his old