Dino Toppmöller and his players knew exactly who they had to thank.
The coach and the professionals of Eintracht Frankfurt stormed to goalkeeper Kaua Santos after the final whistle, who had recorded the victory at the Bayern -Schreck VfL Bochum with a brilliant act in stopp – before they danced in front of the few fans who had not yet left the guest block at 3: 1 (2-0).
The first Bundesliga success of the Hesse in Bochum had been a 50-minute delay of the kick-off in Bochum. Some SGE supporters had prevented a punctual start of the game because their banner escape gates blocked to the interior.
This is “a shame for German football,” said Bochum’s Gerrit Holtmann at DAZN. Frankfurt’s Robin Koch spoke of an “unusual situation. But we managed to keep the focus”.
When it was finally played, Rasmus Kristensen (27th), Jean-Mattéo Bahoya (32nd) and Michy Bathshuayi (90.+6) stopped the series of Hesse of three league three days after the 4-1 triumph against Ajax Amsterdam.
The Europa League quarter-finalist again in the course of the premier class. “We have to thank Kaua a bit,” said Koch: “We are glad that we take the three points with us.”
The relegation -threatened Bochumer, who shortened by Holtmann (73.), suffered a painful setback a week after the 3-2 coup against Bavaria – against their favorite opponent, against whom they won more Bundesliga games than against everyone else. The distance to the saving 15th place increased to five points.
Referee Felix Zwayer initially refused to whistle the game and sent both teams back into the cabins. Security is not guaranteed. Several announcements were unsuccessful. Only when Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche went to the Frankfurt fan curve that the flags were removed on the fence.
In protest, numerous SGE fans left the guest block, also a flag. “You can go home,” the Bochum supporters called maliciously, “you paid, you can go now.”
As early as January 2024, there had been a more than 40-minute delay in the Ruhr Stadium. At that time, fans of the fans of VfB Stuttgart had blocked the gates to the field.
Eintracht strikes ice cold at VfL
VfL made a strong start to late: Matus Bero failed due to Eintracht keeper Kaua Santos, Jakov Medic (both 6th) and Iwan Ordez (10th) narrowly missed their goal with head balls. But apart from an offside goal by Georgios Masouras (20th), nothing jumped out for the hosts in this dominant phase.
Eintracht, on the other hand, used one of its first chances freezing cold: Kristensen initially failed to go to goalkeeper Timo Horn, but scored on the margin. Just five minutes later, the guests dismantled the Bochum defense with the next exemplary counterattack – and Bahoya scored freely to 2-0.
After the break, VfL strengthened its attack efforts before Holtmann once again caused excitement. Frankfurt remained dangerous with his counterattacks. Kaua Santos then reacted out late against Dani de Wit, in the replacement Moritz Broschinski left the huge chance of compensation (90.+2).