BERLIN: Former German champions Werder Bremen slumped to a 2-0 home defeat to Borussia Moenc­hengladbach on Sunday to sink deeper into trouble after having now gone eight games without a win in the Bundesliga.

The visitors were clearly better in the first half and took the lead when Lars Stindl eluded a defender and curled the ball inside the far post from a difficult angle.

Jannik Vestergaard then scored against his former side with a powerful header from a corner to make it 2-0 around the half-hour mark and give Gladbach a trouble-free victory and lifted them to fifth on 14 points.

Thomas Delaney missed Bremen’s best chance before the break when he blazed over from close range, and there were whistles from some home fans at the interval.

Werder, champions in 2004 and runners-up two years later, have gone into free fall, having lost four of their opening games to sit in 17th place on just four points and putting the future of coach Alexander Nouri in serious doubt.

Earlier VfL Wolfsburg twice battled from a goal down to draw 2-2 against Bayer Leverkusen. It was the Wolves’ fourth straight draw under new coach Martin Schmidt.

Dominant in the opening half an hour, Leverkusen finally broke the deadlock on 29 minutes. Lars Bender fired the ball in from close range to score his first goal since April 2016.

The goal seemed to galvanise Wolfsburg. After a flurry of chances just before half time, Liverpool loanee Divock Origi eventually headed the visitors level on 44 minutes.

Lucas Alario restored the lead for Leverkusen on the hour mark, but Wolfsburg were level again within 10 minutes.

Daniel Didavi came off the bench to set up Jakub Blaszczykowski, who slotted the ball past Bernd Leno.

Both sides remained in the bottom half of the table.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017