On Saturday, when snow chaos descended on southern Bavaria and the Bundesliga game between Bayern and Union Berlin had to be canceled, they called fans in Augsburg, 80 kilometers away, for help. The hastily formulated motto: “What one can’t do, many can do.” And everyone actually did it together: Because lots of volunteers and Augsburg club staff cleared the snow in the stadium, the match against Eintracht Frankfurt was able to take place on Sunday evening.
From Augsburg’s perspective, the great collective effort was worth it: thanks to the 2-1 home win, FCA remained unbeaten in the sixth game in a row under new coach Jess Thorup. The goals for FCA were scored by Hans Fredrik Jensen to make it 1-0 (35th minute) and Iago to make it 2-0 (58th). Frankfurt’s 1:2 came from an own goal by FCA goalkeeper Finn Dahmen.
The Frankfurt team, on the other hand, complained about their third defeat in a row across all competitions. “We deserved to lose. We didn’t do enough for 70 or 75 minutes. Augsburg was more aggressive and more physically present,” said sports director Markus Krösche and admitted: “Today our performance wasn’t right. We have to do a lot of things better.” In the year-end spurt, coach Dino Toppmöller’s team fell off the road to success in terms of sport
She is slowly sliding towards a small crisis in relation to her big ambitions. In defense, Frankfurt are too passive and prone to errors. “We conceded a lot of goals. The problem is that we only have ourselves to blame. Today it just wasn’t good,” said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Up front, the Hessians currently lack penetration, determination and efficiency. In the final minute, substitute Jessic Ngankam missed a great chance to make it 2-2.
At the start of the game in Augsburg on Sunday it was minus 12 degrees. Also in the game on the Frankfurt side were Ansgar Knauff and Paxten Aaronson (starting eleven debut), who were given their chance to replace Mario Götze and Fares Chaibi. Junior Dina Ebimbe replaced the injured Ellyes Skhiri in the six position. The French-Cameroonian professional missed the chance to make it 1-0 after eight minutes. Immediately before that, Augsburg’s goalkeeper Finn Dahmen blocked a shot from Aaronson. Max, however, had problems asserting himself at the back left. Defense chief Robin Koch, who made his comeback after recovering from an injury and revealed a few insecurities, also obviously needed time to get used to.
The confusion that began in the Eintracht penalty area after 28 minutes had no negative consequences. According to video evidence, Ohis Uduokhai’s supposed opening goal did not count because Jeffrey Gouweleeuw had been offside beforehand. However, Hans Fredrik Jensen’s powerful goal to make it 1-0 (35th minute) was valid. While building up the game, Frankfurt’s Hugo Larsson stumbled on the ball, opponent Ermedin Demirovic took the initiative and scored the opening goal. The Frankfurters were unable to provide a successful response in the attack. With his shot (45th), Aaronson could not overcome Augsburg’s goalkeeper Dahmen, who never kept a clean sheet in 26 appearances during his Bundesliga stops in Augsburg and Mainz.
Toppmöller reacted to his team’s unconvincing offensive performance: Chaibi played for Aaronson from the 46th minute. And Niels Nkounkou, who had a good game against PAOK Saloniki (1:2) in the Conference League, was allowed to play for Buta, but still had to make do with a place on the bench. But Eintracht initially failed to gain any assertiveness; Knauff put the ball too far in Augsburg’s penalty area. FCA was more determined and won the decisive duels. Trapp was powerless against Iago’s long-range shot to make it 2-0 (58).
In the 64th minute, Eintracht’s next double change was almost logical: Mario Götze for Knauff and Kristijan Jakic for Junior Dina Ebimbe were the personnel changes. Trapp then had a personal sense of achievement when he parried a penalty shot (76th) from Demirovic. Willian Pacho had previously fouled Ruben Vargas, which referee Harm Osmers decided based on video evidence. But things got even better for Eintracht: with a cross shot from Max, Dahmen scored an own goal to make it 1-2 (78′). Frankfurt became a little more active, but the game failed to turn around. “After the tenth minute until the penalty was saved, we no longer existed,” said Toppmöller.
Jörg Daniels, Frankfurt Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Published/Updated:
This Wednesday (6 p.m.) away in the DFB Cup round of 16, the third division club Saarbrücken is waiting for Eintracht. The sense of success that is now expected from the Bundesliga club would be good for Eintracht so that the doubts that arise do not become even greater.
