The premier class is within reach-but the big cheering celebration still has to wait: Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt missed on Sunday evening to make the move into the Champions League prematurely. In the neighborhood duel at the 1st FSV Mainz 05, the Hessen only came to a 1: 1 (1: 0).
Rasmus Kristensen (16th) shot Frankfurt early in the Meva-Arena, but the hosts struck back in the person of Jonathan Burkardt (57th). In the end, nobody was really satisfied. “We are a bit disappointed because we have had a high effort. In the end, the result is okay,” said Burkardt at DAZN.
The prospects of the SGE to qualify for the first time via the league for the Champions League are still shiny: Two game days before the end of the season, the lead of the third in the table on the fifth Dortmund is five points. Mainz missed the seventh winless game in a row to push himself back into the European ranks.
“This is a dream of every player and every trainer to be there,” said Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller before the game about the Champions League, “of course we want to take the last step.” If it still needed a motivation boost, the SGE fans provided it before kick-off with fireworks shots from the guest blog-and the eleven Eintracht professionals in the field of minute one to the Turbo: Hugo Ekitiké missed the early lead after a few seconds (1st).
The home side then had to cope with the substitution of defender Dominik Kohr, who apparently injured his knee (10th). Frankfurt used the failure quickly: Ekitiké served the Kristensen-Mainz keeper Lasse Rieß, who replaced the injured Robin Zentner at short notice, was without a chance of defense. And that was bad luck with the zero fifths: in the 26th minute it was Danny da Costa, who had to give way for Silvan Widmer.
Mainz cannot be stopped
Despite the setbacks, the Rheinhessen managed to get increasingly close to the Frankfurt goal. In the case of heated atmosphere in the arena sold out with 33,305 spectators, however, clear goal opportunities remained in short supply – until Jae -Sung Lee met in added time, but the gate was not recognized due to an offside position (45.+4).
At the beginning of the second half, highlights were initially long in coming – then Mainz deservedly rewarded: After a throw -in from the right side, Burkardt switched the fastest and swept the ball with the thigh to compensate for the line – and to his 16th season goal. With the momentum on their side, the hosts remained the more active team, Frankfurt mostly only ran afterwards, Ekitiké still had the winning goal on the foot (88th).