Andre Schubert is at a loss to explain Borussia Monchengladbach’s loss of form.
Saturday’s 0-0 draw with SV Hamburg featured two missed penalties and leaves Gladbach toiling in mid-table.
Raffael and Thorgan Hazard were missing for the home side with no guarantee that either will be available to face Celtic on Wednesday night.
After finishing last season in fourth place Gladbach are toiling in mid-table with the exertions of playing Manchester City and Barcelona having an impact on their domestic form.
Hamburg sat in to frustrate their hosts on Saturday with Schubert unable to come up with an explanation for his side’s failure to take three points.
“We dictated the play from the start, dominated proceedings and tried to open up space,” he told the club website. “However, it wasn’t easy as HSV sat very deep and only tried to counter-attack. We didn’t create much in the first half.
“You can see that we’re missing players like Raffael and Thorgan Hazard when we’re up against a very defensive opponent. However, we knew that we had to keep the ball moving and make the opposition do the running, and that they would open up a little more towards the end of the game.
“We still managed to create enough chances to win it though. It’s strange to have missed two penalties and we’re obviously frustrated about the goalscoring opportunities we wasted. We will look to analyse the game quickly and start preparing for the next match.
“It’s upsetting, when you keep playing at the opposition, create good chances until the final whistle but fail to find the target. If we win this game 3-0, everyone would be patting us on the backs but given the result this game was simply very strange.”
After the draw with Hamburg Gladbach face a testing week with a trip to face Bayern Munich following on from the Celtic game.
Gladbach then have two home games, against Stuttgart and Eintract Frankfurt before hosting Celtic on November 1.
