After finishing close to the European places in the league last season, Borussia Mönchengladbach showed the necessary improvement with a sixth place finish which will mean they will play in the Europa League next year. It was deserved reward for Lucien Favre's side, who were certainly worthy of a top six finish, but it was a position that was built mainly on their home form and in the first half of the season. Gladbach had been building steadily under the leadership of Favre and over the summer they made some excellent acquisitions as Max Kruse and Raffael, who finished as their top two scorers for the season and led the line all campaign long, were brought in. Alongside the two new strikers Christoph Kramer was signed from second division Bochum and he also had some extended runs in the starting team to good effect. But it was Raffael who stole the show for Fohlen Elf and he was probably their star performer in his first season with the club, especially in the second round of matches where his goals were often the difference between taking all three points and getting a draw. The season did not start well for Gladbach, who were dumped out of the cup in round one by third division SV Darmstadt and that was followed up by a one sided defeat to Bayern München on the first day of the league campaign. Indeed they failed to win away from home for the opening five away league matches until a narrow win in Hamburg broke that run. But their home form was near perfect and they won all of their opening round home matches with the exception of their game against Wolfsburg just before the winter break. This run, alongside improved away form, meant that they were third at Christmas and on course for the Champions League. But their second half of the season was not as positive. After losing their unbeaten home record against Bayern in round 18 they lost their way and with the goals from their front two drying up they went a total of nine matches without a win, before beating Dortmund for the second time in the season, which ended their run, but by then they had dropped to seventh and had to fight for their place in the Europa League. Some solid end of season form, including wins against Schalke away from home and against rivals for the top seven, Mainz, in their final home match secured their place in European competition for next season. Favre will hope that he can balance Europa League football with their league form next season but they look set to make some more solid signings with Andre Hahn coming in from Augsburg and Ibrahima Traore from Stuttgart already, which add to what is currently a very good squad.
