Eintracht Frankfurt is keeping up with the European Cup places in the Bundesliga and, thanks to a late double strike, is heading into the Christmas season with the hoped-for mood booster. On the last matchday of the year, coach Dino Toppmöller’s team defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach after falling behind 2-1 (0-1) and celebrated their second win from the last eight competitive games (six defeats).
With the goals from Aurelio Buta (90+2) and Robin Koch (90+7) in the majority, Eintracht proved at least to some extent that the furious 5-1 win against record champions Bayern Munich a week and a half ago was not a flash in the pan. With 24 points from 16 games, the SGE continues to have its sights set on the international places. Gladbach (17th), on the other hand, is nestled in no man’s land in the table; the goal from Maximilian Wöber (27th), who saw yellow-red shortly before the end (88th), was not enough.
“That was important, especially after the last few weeks that were not so successful. We worked for it today and are very happy that we won today,” said sports director Markus Krösche on “Sky”.
At the end of a turbulent year, Eintracht coach Toppmöller was once again able to utilize almost all of his personnel. The recently ill and suspended striker Omar Marmoush returned to the starting line-up, as did Ellyes Skhiri after recovering from a thigh injury. The ailing defenders Koch and Willian Pacho were also fit in time.
Gladbach hits out of nowhere
Nevertheless, it took the hosts a good ten minutes to find their way into the game in front of 58,000 spectators, but then they dominated the game. Frankfurt played dangerously close to the baseline twice with through passes, but the last pass failed to reach the goal. A shot from Pacho (22nd) went just over the goal.
The lead therefore came out of nowhere, Wöber scored Gladbach’s eighth goal of the season after a corner. National goalkeeper Kevin Trapp was powerless in his 250th Bundesliga game for Frankfurt. As a result, the Hessians had a hard time, losing a lot of the ball while building up the game and giving the increasingly self-confident Borussia opportunities to counterattack.
Eintracht Frankfurt wakes up after the break
Frankfurt came out of the break with commitment, but hardly found any gaps. Things only became dangerous after a bad mistake in Gladbach’s build-up game, but goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas made a strong save against Fares Chaibi (55′). On the other side, Manu Kone (61′) finished too weakly after a counterattack.
For the most part, Gladbach retreated a long way, let Eintracht run – and waited for the Conference League participants to make mistakes, which kept coming. Typical of Frankfurt’s uninspired offensive efforts was Koch’s desperate long-range shot (67th) from 30 meters. Frankfurt only managed to turn things around when they had the majority.