Borussia Monchengladbach winger Thorgan Hazard. (Photo : Getty Images)
Middling club FC Ingolstadt 04 (9-10-9, 36 points) is scheduled to meet contending team Borussia Monchengladbach (14-11-3, 45 points) on Saturday, April 9th at the Audi Sportpark as the 2015-2016 Bundesliga season slowly winds down to a close.
With only six matchdays left in the current German top flight season, the two squads are nine points and five sports away from one another in the current league table.
Ingolstadt is presently sitting in the middle of the table, at the no. 9 spot, and is comfortably settled nine points above the bottom three relegation zone.
Last season's 2. Bundesliga winners would indeed like to stay in the first division competitions as they recently snapped a five-game winless slide, pulling off an impressive 3-0 win over seventh-placed squad FC Schalke 04 also at their home stadium of Audi Sportpark last Saturday, as per Soccerway.
German striker Moritz Hartmann opened the scoring with a penalty kick at the 29th minute for head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl's side. It was followed up by a goal from Austrian striker Lukas Hinterseer at the stroke of halftime before Paraguayan forward Dario Lezcano sealed the game with a left-footed shot at the 65th, completing Die Schanzer's three-goal performance.
Die Knappen is surprisingly lackluster in the match as they failed to score a single goal against the newly-promoted squad.
Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach crushed fellow contending team Hertha Berlin SC, 5-0, at their home field of Stadion im Borussia-Park on Sunday to temporarily keep the final Champions League qualification berth with the fourth spot in the league table, via SkySports.
Belgian winger Thorgan Hazard scored a double at the 14th and 80th minutes to lead head coach André Schubert's men past the current third-placers. Midfielders Andre Hahn, Patrick Herrmann, and Ibrahima Traoré all scored one goal apiece at the 60th, 76th, and 85th minutes respectively to complete Die Fohlen's five-goal haul.
Only the top four clubs at the end of the season will qualify in next season's Champions League competitions, with the top three directly entering the group stage while the fourth-placed team will be included in the playoff round.
The predicted result is a close 1-0 win for Borussia Monchengladbach.
FC Ingolstadt 04 starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Ozcan; da Costa, Bregerie, Matip, Bauer; Gross, Roger, Christiansen; Hinterseer, Lezcano, Hartmann
Borussia Monchengladbach starting lineup (3-4-1-2 formation): Sommer; Elvedi, Christensen, Nordtveit; Johnson, Dahoud, Xhaka, Wendt; Stindl; Hahn, Hazard
