VfL Bochum celebrated their first win of the season in the Bundesliga on the ninth day of the game. VfL won 3-0 (0-0) against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday (October 8th, 2022).
Philipp Hofmann (71′), an own goal by Evan N’Dicka (87′) and Philipp Förster (90’+1′) sealed Bochum’s first success of the current season. Despite the victory, Thomas Letsch’s team remains bottom of the table with four points, but is back on the safe side. For Eintracht, the surprising defeat is a major setback in the fight for a place in the European Cup. “Of course I’m happy about this win. But above all I’m happy about the team’s passionate performance.”said a satisfied Letsch.
Few chances, Bochum holds against it
Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner had rotated his starting line-up from the Champions League game against Tottenham and changed five times. Among other things, Mario Götze was back in the starting eleven. Also new from the start: Lucas Alario. The striker, in cooperation with Götze, set the first offensive scent of the game, but his low shot from almost 20 meters went wide of the Bochum goal (7th). Fifteen minutes later, Alario failed from the edge of the box to Manuel Riemann (23rd).
The level of the game, which started quite lively, then decreased, Frankfurt seemed a bit tired, Bochum held up well, but had problems in the attacking third to show successful combinations. Shortly before half-time, Gerrit Holtmann had VfL’s best opportunity to date, but his low shot at the far corner was sure prey for Frankfurt keeper Kevin Trapp (43′). It went into the half-time break 0-0.
Bochum can celebrate three times
In the second round, the game didn’t really get any better at first either. After a good hour, the audience was roused with a bang from the autumn afternoon slumber they must have fallen into by now, when a shot from Rafael Borré smacked the post of the Bochum goal from a good ten meters. After seventy-one minutes there was actually a loud eruption in the stands: After a corner from the right, Hofmann prevailed in a dogfight thanks to the better positional play against Tuta and nodded off for Trapp from close range – the loudly acclaimed 1-0.
Frankfurt reacted angrily and visibly shifted up a gear. Eintracht ran, Bochum threw themselves into every shot and duel – and was successful. A wonderful back-heel goal by Daichi Kamada was rightly denied due to a narrow offside position (80′), otherwise the Hessians couldn’t get the ball over the line guarded by Manuel Riemann – but over their own. N’Dicka extended a free-kick cross into his own goal with his toe (87′). Förster refined coach Letsch’s home debut with a powerful finish in added time to make it 3-0, which was a bit too clear in the end. “I take 100 percent responsibility for the defeat. It was my formation, my system change and therefore clearly my responsibility,” explained Glasner afterwards.
Frankfurt during the week at Tottenham
On the 4th matchday of the Champions League group stage, Frankfurt will travel to Tottenham during the week (Wednesday, October 12th, 2022 at 9:00 p.m.). In the Bundesliga, the Hessians will host Bayer Leverkusen on Matchday 10 (Saturday, October 15, 2022 at 3:30 p.m.). At the same time, Bochum is challenged in the important “six-point game” against Stuttgart.