Alonso ahead of #B04BMG: “Great development under Seoane”

“It’s the first game of the second half of the season and we’re very excited. We feel good and are expecting an intense game,” Alonso told the media. “And Jonathan Tah is also fit to play,” he added when asked about the central defender. However, the Spaniard wouldn’t reveal anything about how he intends to line up his team tomorrow: “We have enough players and a dynamic rhythm with our rotation. We always need everyone and are fully focused.”

Victor Boniface, Amine Adli and Jeanuel Belocian remain on the sidelines for the Werkself, with Alonso saying of the former: “He won’t be back tomorrow and still needs a bit of time to get fit. But his progress and feeling are good. We’ll look again next week.”

Alonso: “Sometimes with nice football, sometimes clinical”

Gladbach have had a good season so far, reaching as high as sixth place. They’ve started 2025 with 1-0 and 5-1 defeats at the hands of Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg respectively, though, dropping them down to 11th. However, the gap to the European places remains only four points. Asked about Saturday’s opponents, Alonso said: “They’ve lost their first two games [of the year] but are still a good opponent and also more complete than last season. There’s been great development under Gerardo [Seoane], which we could see in the reverse fixture in Mönchengladbach.” That game was finely poised at 2-2 going into added time until Florian Wirtz put away a decisive penalty 11 minutes beyond the 90.

Alonso is expecting a similarly tight encounter at the BayArena as well. “It’ll be an intense game. We need to play in an intelligent way and with control. Sometimes you win with nice football, sometimes by being clinical. We showed against Mainz that we can also suffer. Every game is a new challenge for us,” the 43-year-old said.

Diversions around Leverkusen

The BayArena is set to be full on Saturday, with 3,000 away fans from Mönchengladbach. Visitors are advised to allow extra time for travel due to two major road closures. The A1 is closed in both directions between Leverkusen-West and Leverkusen, while the Westring is also closed in both directions between Rheinallee and Nobelstraße in Leverkusen. When asked about ensuring his squad also knew to allow extra time to get to work, Alonso jokingly responded: “There are roadworks everywhere in North Rhine-Westphalia. Everyone is aware of them.”