Eintracht Frankfurt has suffered the next setback in the race for the European Cup places. Despite having the best opportunities against VfL Bochum, coach Dino Toppmöller’s team couldn’t get past a 1-1 draw (1-1) and missed out on making amends for their disappointing performance the previous week at 1. FC Köln (0-2).
African Cup returnee Omar Marmoush (14th) gave the ineffective Hessians an early lead, but thanks to Moritz Broschinski’s goal (17th), Bochum secured the next point in the fight to stay in the league. Frankfurt has to improve in the second round first leg of the Conference League on Thursday (6.45 p.m./RTL+) at Union Saint-Gilloise.
Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller had called for “a good reaction” to the “weak performance” in Cologne. To do this, he had to change his starting eleven to five positions: Attacker Sasa Kalajdzic became a father on Saturday, goalkeeper Kevin Trapp also had to miss the game at short notice with back problems, and Jens Grahl played instead.
Bochum comes into play better
The Bochum team actually got off to a better start, but the SGE took the lead with the first opportunity. After a counterattack via Fares Chaibi, Marmoush, who was back for the first time since the Africa Cup of Nations, slotted in easily. However, the answer came quickly: Broschinski equalized with a deflected shot.
Eintracht had a difficult time before the break, and the injury-related substitution of Hugo Larsson after around 20 minutes also increased their personnel concerns. The Hessians bit their teeth against Bochum’s compact defense, but VfL, on the other hand, played along cheerfully and repeatedly caused needle pricks.
Opportunities such as Bochum’s Kevin Stöger’s inaccurate finish (26′) remained in short supply in the first round. Only Chaibi (45th) narrowly missed a cross from Donny van de Beek shortly before the half-time whistle, and not much else came from the SGE.
Eintracht turns up the heat after the break
That changed after the break when Marmoush (48th) missed the big chance to score a second goal. Willian Pacho (57th) was similarly negligent and missed another good opportunity from close range. Takuma Asano aimed inaccurately twice on the other side (59th/66th).
Eintracht invested more and created chances almost every minute. The SGE started the final phase with momentum, after a strong individual effort from substitute Hugo Ekitike, Chaibi (69th) also failed to get the ball over the line at the best opportunity.