In the midst of turbulent days, Eintracht Frankfurt must continue to wait for a sporting liberation. Despite a dominant performance, the Europa League winner coached by Oliver Glasner was unable to get past a 1-1 (1-1) draw against VfL Bochum, who were threatened with relegation, on Friday evening in the Bundesliga. Frankfurt has been waiting for a competitive win since mid-February.
The goal by Randal Kolo Muani (22nd minute / penalty kick) was not enough for Eintracht in front of 50,000 spectators after Takuma Asano (14th) conceded an early goal. The return to the Champions League is a long way off for the Frankfurters, who, in addition to a sporting crisis, are also struggling with an internal power struggle over CEO Axel Hellmann and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Philip Holzer. The dress rehearsal for the DFB Cup on Tuesday (6 p.m.) against 1. FC Union Berlin also failed. “It’s incredibly bitter and annoying that you don’t win the game,” said Frankfurt’s Philipp Max. Bochum and coach Thomas Letsch, on the other hand, can live with the point in the relegation battle after the last two wins.
Eintracht can convince in a playful way – just not in front of the goal
The start of the 26th Bundesliga match day was also the start of the “Stop Racism” campaign, with which the German professional clubs want to take a stand against racism and exclusion.
For Eintracht coach Glasner, the situation was familiar in recent weeks: Up front, the players around Rafael Borré (7th and 10th) missed chances, behind simple mistakes were punished. A long throw-in by Christopher Antwi-Adjei became a great danger because two players were completely free in the middle. Keeper Kevin Trapp parried Anthony Losilla’s shot, but he had no chance when Asano added it. The next setback was imminent for the Frankfurt team who had been victorious in six competitive games.
But Eintracht, led by striker Kolo Muani, played more playfully than they had in a long time. It was the French national striker who almost single-handedly equalized. First Kolo Muani made it into the penalty area, where Ivan Ordets brought him down just before the shot. Then he transformed from the point ice cold, it was his twelfth goal of the season. Ordets was well served with a yellow card for thwarting a clear scoring opportunity from close range.
The powerful Eintracht had more scenes, but before the break the necessary precision was missing. Even after the change, the European Cup winner played primarily. And the balls kept coming back to Kolo Muani, who failed in the long duel with Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Riemann with a header and then missed the ball when attempting an acrobatic overhead kick. Bochum tried to save a point win in Frankfurt over time. Again Riemann (61) parried a free-kick from Philipp Max, previously a contact by Antwi-Adjei against Frankfurt’s Aurelio Buta in the penalty area was not enough for another penalty. It was fitting that a Borré header was cleared off the line. On the other hand, Frankfurt was lucky that a free kick from Kevin Stöger only landed on the crossbar.