Our next opponents: Gladbach sporting director sounds warning

Position

Borussia are back on track. After three games without a win, marked above all by poor performances on the road, the Foals beat Hamburg SV 3-1 on Friday night to return to the leading pack in the Bundesliga. The team from Mönchengladbach are now sixth in the league equal on points with the Werkself – with everything on course. The team coached by Dieter Hecking have successfully negotiated their way in the DFB Cup. The team from the Lower Rhine were drawn away on both occasions. While they did not have to travel far, progress in the competition was bound up with greater effort on the pitch. Borussia were on the verge of being knocked out in the first round by Regional League side Rot-Weiß Essen but they turned round a  1-0 deficit late on with two goals to secure a 2-1 win. Gladbach also had to fight hard in the next round for a 1-0 victory against top second division side Fortuna Düsseldorf: Keeper Yann Sommer saved a penalty to prevent the tie going into extra time.

personnel

36 years– an age where one or two stalwarts in professional football still produce reliable performances. That was the combined age of two Borussia Mönchengladbach players on Friday - playing in a key position. Reece Oxford and Mickael Cuisance, both 18 years old at the time of the match, were alongside each other in a holding midfield role  against HSV and they impressed the critics. The Frenchman Cuisance was voted man of the match by the Gladbach fans – although master technician Raffael won the game with a double. With his two goals, the Brazilian is equal top scorer for the club with Thorgan Hazard (six goals each). The latter has his most impressive half season in a Borussia shirt behind him having being  involved in 12 goals and now he is  an automatic choice for Gladbach on the wing – particularly with the majority of the competition in this position sidelined at the moment. Fabian Johnson plus Ibrahima Traoré and Jonas Hofmann have recently been injured and are probably unlikely to play against Bayer 04. Christoph Kramer could make it. The former Leverkusen player (at Bayer 04 up to 2016) missed the Hamburg game with a neck problem but he could return to the line-up against the club he started with. Even if he is unavailable, Borussia feel they have enough strength in the central midfield. Good luck to those with such talents in reserve.

problems

It's not often that teams are in the leading group at the winter break with a negative goal difference. The fact Gladbach have achieved this trick is down to the efficiency of Hecking's side – but problems at the back also play their part. The Foals have already conceded 28 goals in the Bundesliga  with only Freiburg (31) and FC Köln (32) letting in more. Bayer 04 exploited the occasional weakness in the Gladbach defence in the Bundesliga meeting in the middle of October with five goals scored in the second half. There could be another defensive problem for the Cup game against Leverkusen: Gladbach's usual right back Nico Elvedi went off injured against Hamburg. It remains to be seen whether or not the Switzerland international will be available to play against the Werkself.

potential

Following the 3-1 win against Hamburg,  Max Eberl (pictured above) called on some fans not to be overconfident. "That could catches out as other big clubs have been found out. A completely exaggerated degree of expectation. I feel it's going  in the wrong direction,"declared Gladbach's sporting director after dissent rang out from the stands during the first half. In recent years much has gone in the right direction for Borussia thanks to Eberl. The club has progressed from being candidates for relegation to Champions League participants within a short space of time and now they are in the leading group in the Bundesliga every season. Thanks to long-term planning with lots of young players, it appears realistic that the situation will remain the same in the next few years so that Borussia might only have to restrain themselves from expecting too much.

prediction

Gladbach undoubtedly want to get to where they almost were last season – the DFB Cup final in Berlin. Borussia lost out on penalties in the semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt so they are still looking for the first appearance in the Final since winning the competition in 1995 (3-0 against VfL Wolfsburg). Heiko Herrlich, who scored a goal for the Foals in that final, and his team will do everything they can on Wednesday night to ensure that status remains the same this season.