Favre, Dante ignoring Euro dreams

Borussia Monchengladbach coach Lucien Favre is not getting carried away about his side's Bundesliga title chances despite their lofty position in the standings. Die Fohlen are just a point behind Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke at the top of the table thanks to a 3-0 win at Stuttgart yesterday, but Favre is keeping his feet on the ground. "We are playing very well at the moment and we have 39 points, and we deserve those," he said. "But we don't have any concrete target. Our aim is just to collect as many points as possible and we are only looking at ourselves because we have a very tough few weeks ahead. It is going to be very difficult next weekend at Wolfsburg because they are a very dangerous side at home." With four UEFA Champions League places on offer in the Bundesliga at the end of this season, yesterday's win has put Gladbach well in control of their own destiny with an eight-point cushion over fifth-placed Werder Bremen. The gap to seventh is already 12 points, meaning a place in the UEFA Europa League is theirs for the taking, but defender Dante has echoed the words of his coach by ignoring the league table. "Despite this win, we are not talking about European football," he said on his club's website. "The season is still long and we have to fight hard for every victory. We cannot start dreaming but we must continue taking things game by game." Meanwhile, Stuttgart's hopes of returning to Europe next season appear to be over after their fourth straight defeat. "We have lost our first two games of the second half of the season and we have got to wake up otherwise it is going to get tight below us," said their defender Serdar Tasci.