With concentrated offensive power, Eintracht Frankfurt has impressively underlined the current top form and awakened hopes for the title among the fans.
In the last Bundesliga home game of the successful year, the Europa League winners celebrated a brilliant 4:2 (3:1) victory over TSG Hoffenheim and moved up the table to a place in the Champions League.
Frankfurt, driven by the extremely strong Mario Götze, got off to a dream start and, thanks to a double strike from Djibril Sow (6th) and Randal Kolo Muani (8th), led 2-0 early on. After Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe (29th) made it 3-0, the fans in the 49,000-strong Deutsche Bank Park chanted: “Only SGE will be German champion!”
“In the last few weeks, the team has really got used to it, the boys get along. That makes us so dangerous at the moment,” said Eintracht manager Markus Krösche on “Sky”: “We played very convincing football, but we still have potential for development. We are on a good way.”
The Hoffenheim team, who were completely overwhelmed at first, came back with two goals from Christoph Baumgartner (37th) and Ozan Kabak (46th), but Jesper Lindström (56th) made the 4-2 victory perfect for the Hessians.
Eintracht Frankfurt initially in steamroller mode
As announced, coach Oliver Glasner gave his ailing captain Sebastian Rode a break, while Daichi Kamada, who was recently ill, played in Eintracht’s midfield. The Croatian Vice World Champion Andrej Kramaric returned to the starting XI for the guests – but TSG did not initially take part in the offensive.
The guests found almost no means against extremely aggressive and strong-running Frankfurters and also helped a lot with the first two goals conceded. Before the 0:1, Eduardo Quaresma carelessly frittered away the ball, the 0:2 made possible by goalkeeper Oliver Baumann with a failed fist defence.
Even after that, Eintracht remained enthusiastic. Götze and Kamada in particular repeatedly initiated dangerous attacks, and Lindstrom was also a constant source of trouble. And striker Kolo Muani proved his excellent understanding of the game in many scenes.
TSG shows morale
Hoffenheim could hardly counter this offensive power, and coach André Breitenreiter’s team also disappointed in terms of fighting. Baumgartner’s goal came practically out of nowhere, but gave the visitors a tailwind. The quick 2:3 by Kabak immediately after the change of sides nourished the hope for the turnaround.
Breitenreiter had made three changes at halftime, and the attitude was now much better. But Frankfurt quickly found its rhythm again.