Red card for keeper Trapp: Eintracht Frankfurt suffers a late defeat at PAOK

In the game at PAOK Saloniki, Eintracht Frankfurt is the better team, but once again lacks coolness. In stoppage time there is a late knockout and a painful red card.

Eintracht Frankfurt suffered an away defeat on the second matchday of the Conference League group stage. At PAOK Saloniki it was 1:2 (0:1) in the end from the Hessian perspective. Andrija Zivkovic (28th minute) and Konstantinos Koulierakis (90th + 2) scored for the hosts, while Omar Marmoush was successful for Eintracht (68th).

“It was a very undeserved defeat, we had the game under control for 90 minutes,” said Frankfurt coach Dino Toppmöller angrily.

Hauge replaces Götze

The line-up had a few surprises in store: Jens Petter Hauge replaced Mario Götze, who stayed at home, and the wing tongs were also replaced with Niels Nkounkou and Ansgar Knauff (for junior Dina Ebimbe and Aurélio Buta). It stayed with the usual system and the usual gaming system.

This gave Eintracht their first good chance in the 7th minute. After a nice combination via Knauff, Marmoush and Fares Chaibi, the ball came to Nkounkou, whose direct shot hit the outside post. The Frankfurt team played their usual possession football and tried to get into dangerous positions on offense. Hauge lost the ball during a daring dribble, PAOK played the counterattack to supposedly make it 1-0, which the VAR subsequently conceded due to a narrow offside position (16th).

Free kick sails past everyone and into the goal

But the home team did take the lead: Zivkovic sent in a free-kick cross that, to the surprise of keeper Kevin Trapp, sailed past everyone and into the goal (28′). Saloniki then let Eintracht play, but declared their own penalty area almost completely a restricted area. The result was a long-distance shooting festival in which both Ellyess Skhiri, Marmoush and Hugo Larsson tried unsuccessfully. We went into the break with the deficit.

Then coach Dino Toppmöller brought in Buta, a fresh man for the right wing. Knauff, who moved to the left side, had the first good chance of the second half: after a candle from PAOK goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski, he followed up strongly and headed with the back of his head towards the goal. Kotarski was just able to make up for his mistake (54. ). Shortly afterwards, Tuta had a good opportunity after a corner, but didn’t hit the box (63′).

Marmoush determined, Hasebe unhappy

The equalizer was a result of Marmoush’s will: the Egyptian put PAOK defender Koulierakis under pressure and stole the ball from him. He then kept his nerve in front of Kotarski and hit the ball into the net to make it 1-1 (68′). A rare moment of determination in Eintracht’s ranks, who played well but lacked coolness in the final third, as has so often been the case recently. Of the 18 shots on goal in the game, very few were really dangerous.

The Toppmöller team still had the chance to score the winning goal when Chaibi hit the crossbar with a free kick (83′). PAOK, who were hardly visible offensively in the second half, did better: After a free kick in stoppage time, the ball bounced off substitute Makoto Hasebe at the feet of Koulierakis, who was able to score the celebrated winning goal and Eintracht were left empty-handed let (90.+2).

After the final whistle, things got even worse for the Hessians: After forming a pack, Trapp was shown the red card, as was PAOK player Soualiho Meite.