West Bromwich Albion slumped to a defeat against German Bundesliga team Borussia Monchengladbach in their opening pre-season match.
Sherjill MacDonald’s 64th minute goal levelled the scores following Roberto Colautti’s opener but Borussia restored their advantage in the 73rd through Moses Lamidi following some poor Albion defending.
Tony Mowbray used all outfield players at some stage during the game, but was forced into one change when Robert Koren suffered a knee injury.
Albion started brightly enough in a relatively low-key opening. Ishmael Miller had a sniff of goal after 23 minutes when he controlled Chris Brunt’s diagonal ball, raced past Roel Brouwers but blazed his strike over home keeper Christopher Heimeroth’s goal.
The best chance of the opening stages fell for Colautti, who saw his 25th-minute shot saved by Dean Kiely after the Albion keeper had denied Marko Marin.
Colautti should have buried another chance from the resulting corner after Karim Matmour’s shot was blocked on the line by Jonathan Greening.
Albion replied when Brunt smashed an effort straight at Thomas Kleine before Marcel Ndjeng rattled the bar with a fierce drive two minutes later.
The Baggies almost snatched a cheeky lead in the 40th minute when Miller stuck his heel out to to meet Carl Hoefken’s low cross.
Instead it was the German side who took the lead when Coulatti converted from close range. Pauuwe’s initial shot deflected into Coulatti’s path. He took the ball around Robinson and Kiely before slotting the ball home.
Having made five half-time changes, Albion were forced into a sixth on 59 minutes when Koren was forced off with an injury and replaced by Graham Dorrans.
Albion’s luck turned, briefly. Substitute Sherjill MacDonald smashed in Albion’s equaliser on 64 minutes when Hoefkens’ cross was headed back into his path by David Worrall and the Dutchman struck from 20 yards.
Borussia regained their lead nine minutes later when sub Lamidi raced onto a diagonal ball from Sharbel Touma and buried a high shot past Kiely.
