19th matchday
Rio world champion Götze heads Frankfurt to win against Mainz
Mario Götze (M) headed Eintracht to victory against Mainz. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
Eintracht Frankfurt is struggling to win against Mainz and can thank Mario Götze. The guests remain winless again – and have to tremble at the weekend.
Rio world champion Mario Götze led Eintracht Frankfurt to victory in a tough Rhine-Main derby against FSV Mainz 05 with his first goal of the season.
Thanks to Götze’s header (73rd minute) to make it 1-0 (0-0) in front of 58,000 spectators, the Hessians consolidated their place in the top group of the Bundesliga and the fans can dream of the Champions League. On the other hand, Mainz are at risk of falling into a direct relegation zone after their eighth game without a win at the weekend.
More moving than the game was the emotional farewell of the outgoing club president Peter Fischer from the Eintracht fans, who celebrated him before the game against Mainz. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, take care, family. Stay as you are. See you soon, take care, your Peter,” said the popular 67-year-old entrepreneur with tears in his eyes. After more than 23 years in office, he will no longer be a candidate at the general meeting on February 5th.
There was hardly anything on offer in the first half that could spark celebrations. Instead, the fans mainly saw a tough struggle in the midfield and hardly any scenes in the goal area. The more aggressive Mainz team initially proved that defense was the top priority under coach Jan Siewert.
Nevertheless, the coach was willing to improve on the extremely poor goal tally against Frankfurt this season. So he offered three offensive players, Jonathan Burkardt, Karim Onisiwo and Marco Richter, and announced before kick-off: “We want to be brave.”
His colleague Dino Toppmöller had also called for more courage after Frankfurt lost 2-2 in the Hesse derby at Darmstadt 98 a week earlier. But a lot of it remained theory for a long time; there were hardly any chances on either side.
In the 7th minute, Ansgar Knauff beat ex-Frankfurt player Dominik Kohr, but his shot from 14 meters from half left was too weak and landed in the arms of Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner. The guests had their greatest opportunity to score to date through a failed return, which Tuta was just able to slip to Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Neither team had much more to offer in the uneventful first half.
Even after the restart, it remained a game with few highlights, but with many shortcomings and mistakes. For Frankfurt, Farès Chaibi, who came on at half-time for new signing Donny van de Beek, was unable to provide more momentum and ideas. The Algerian only returned from the Africa Cup on Thursday evening. Only a few fans expected Götze to score the winning goal from a suspicious offside position.