Hertha BSC Berlin vs Monchengladbach preview - Favre faces old friend

Lucien Favre comes up against both his former club and a former player of his when he takes his side to Hertha Berlin this Sunday.

The Swiss coach sat on the Hertha bench between 2007 and 2009 and guided them into the Europa League during that time, only narrowly missing out on a place in the Champions League.

One of his players was Pal Dardai, who is now sat on the Hertha bench - a place Favre says he always saw the Hungarian sitting one day.

"I knew he would become a coach eventually," Favre told local media. "You could always have some good chats with him about football.

"He always understood very well what I wanted of him as a coach."

As such, Favre advised Dardai to start working with Hertha's youth team once he hung up his boots, and now he is in the Hertha hotseat.

"I learnt a great deal from him," Dardai said. "Particularly tactically. We had a very special relationship."

That will have to be put to one side for 90 minutes on Sunday, though, with both sides desperate for three points for different reasons.

For Hertha, a win could see them safe mathematically while Gladbach want maximum points to remain ahead of Bayer Leverkusen - the side they meet next weekend - in the race for third place.

"We want to beat one of the big clubs at long last," Dardai said. "People keep telling me how well we played against Bayern Munich last weekend, but we didn't get anything from it.

"That's in the past now anyway. We're only looking forwards."