Sunday 20 August 2017 19:39, UK
Borussia Monchengladbach kicked off their new Bundesliga campaign with a 1-0 home win over rivals Cologne thanks to Nico Elvedi's 49th-minute strike.
The hosts started brightly at Borussia-Park with Thorgan Hazard, Raffael and Lars Stindl all going close early on, although Jhon Cordoba also threatened for the visitors on two occasions before the break.
However, Borussia finished the half strongly with Elvedi and Hazard both passing up late chances.
They eventually took the lead four minutes into the second half when Elvedi fired home from inside the penalty area, and Raffael might have doubled their advantage six minutes later, but went agonisingly wide.
Cologne responded with Leonardo Bittencourt and Cordoba going close in quick succession, but Stindl forced Timo Horn to make a 71st-minute save with the game approaching a tense conclusion.
Milos Jojic might have snatched an equaliser 14 minutes from time, but there proved to be no way back for the visitors.
In the day's early match, Sebastien Haller struck the crossbar as Eintracht Frankfurt came close to victory at Freiburg.
The striker hit the woodwork with a right-foot shot 36 minutes into a game of few clear-cut chances which ultimately ended 0-0.
Defender Simon Falette had earlier headed just wide for the visitors, although Lukas Hradecky had to save from Freiburg's Tim Kleindienst on the stroke of half-time.
Marc-Oliver Kempf went close for the home side four minutes after the restart and Kevin-Prince Boateng almost broke the deadlock at the other end with 21 minutes remaining, but there was no separating the teams.
