Monchengladbach 1 - 0 SC Freiburg - Herrmann fires Gladbach to victory

Borussia Monchengladbach were the big winners on Tuesday night in the Bundesliga, beating Freiburg 1-0 to edge closer to Wolfsburg in second position.

Like in Stuttgart on Saturday, Patrick Herrmann proved to be the match-winner with the only goal of the game, striking midway through the first half rather than leaving it late this time.

Freiburg, who started the year with a convincing 4-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt at the weekend, were brought straight back down to earth with hat-trick hero from Saturday Nils Petersen drawing a blank on his first start for the club.

Freiburg goalkeeper Roman Burki might have sensed he was in for a busy night when he turned away an early volley from Herrmann before denying the German winger soon after in a one-on-one situation.

Petersen then had a goal disallowed, but Herrmann struck soon after to beat Burki from close range.

Gladbach did not look to turn the screw, though, and seemed happy to get away with the minimum of effort, perhaps already looking ahead to their next challenge against Schalke on Friday night.

Freiburg instead gave them plenty of work to do, forcing them onto the back foot while at the same time stifling their usual counter-attacking game.

The best chance fell to Christian Streich's men, but they lacked the incision they showed in the second half on Saturday with Mats Moller Daehli denied by Yann Sommer late on.

That proved to be the last opportunity to level with Freiburg's efforts going unrewarded, and a place back inside the bottom three could therefore be theirs on Wednesday night.

Gladbach, meanwhile, narrowed the gap on Wolfsburg to five points while league leaders Bayern Maunich are now 13 points ahead of Lucien Favre's men.