Dino Toppmöller has now had his own experience with the mood of the Eintracht supporters. If his team wins, the coach concluded in recent days, many people immediately talk about the Champions League. And the other extreme can be observed, if the Frankfurt team perform unsuccessfully, then there will be immediate talk of a relegation battle.
The 43-year-old left no doubt that black and white thinking is too blatant for him. He asked for more realism. A pious wish. Because his players had noticed many shortcomings in the defeat in Cologne (0-2), there were many, right up to the club board, who publicly expressed their displeasure and demanded a different demeanor. The result from the game against VfL Bochum again did not meet expectations: the Hessians couldn’t get more than a 1-1 draw.
They maintained their position in the top third of the table with their eighth draw on the 21st Bundesliga matchday. They now have 32 points, but in sixth place they were unable to reduce the gap to Leipzig (37) and Dortmund (40), who were ahead of them. The partial success will hardly relax the working atmosphere in which Toppmöller works with the team. “The result is of course annoying, we are disappointed,” said sports director Markus Krösche. “We made a lot of simple mistakes. We did much better in the second half and got the energy on the pitch – but unfortunately we didn’t score the goals.”
No entry into the Eintracht starting eleven
The Frankfurt football teacher had to react to bad news shortly before kick-off: Kevin Trapp stopped the warm-up program and was out again with back problems. Substitute Jens Grahl moved between the posts for the regular goalkeeper; The 35-year-old made his fifth substitute appearance in this round.
None of the five winter additions were in Frankfurt’s starting line-up. On the one hand, because like Hugo Etikité, they are not yet fit; The Frenchman only made his home debut when he came on in the 64th minute. For Sasa Kalajdzic, who is also still waiting to gain a foothold in Frankfurt, the reason for not being nominated was a positive one: his partner gave birth to their child in the early afternoon.
Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Published/Updated:
Without the newcomers, the offensive game was again focused on Omar Marmoush as the central point. And the Egyptian promptly continued as he had left off before leaving for the Africa Cup: scoring goals for Eintracht. On an assist from Fares Chaibi, Marmoush rounded VfL goalkeeper Manuel Riemann and slotted in to make it 1-0 (14th minute). It was the 13th goal of the season for the 25-year-old.
The joy of her leadership did not last long for Toppmöller’s selection. Moritz Broschinski immediately equalized. With his shot, the Bochum player benefited from the cooperation of Eintracht defender Willian Pacho, who deflected the ball so that it went over Grahl in an unstoppable arc and into the goal (17th).
Van de Beek comes into the game early
Toppmöller reacted to Hugo Larsson’s injury-related absence by bringing in Donny van de Beeks (20′). Before the encounter with the Bochum team, the coach also said about the Dutchman, who was on loan from Manchester United, that he wanted to build him up with “calm and patience” because he was still a long way from his top form after months of being ignored. But because the personnel shortage was great on Saturday in front of 57,500 spectators (which was also contributed to by the absence of the suspended Tuta and Nkounkou as well as Ebimbe’s injury), Toppmöller had to act contrary to his intentions.
Van de Beek struggled to make his mark in midfield. He didn’t shine, showed signs of his skill with the ball at times and was taken down again in the 84th minute to make way for Sebastian Rode, from whom Toppmöller expected more power for the final spurt. A counterattack, initiated by Takuma Asano, almost gave VfL, who repeatedly appeared briskly in the opponent’s half, the second goal, but Kevin Stöger missed by one meter (26th).
It wasn’t enough for Frankfurt and Mario Götze (right) to win at home over Bochum. : Image: dpa
At the start of the second period, Marmoush missed a promising opportunity to bring Eintracht forward again. Set in motion by Mario Götze, who got to the point quicker than the surrounding Bochum players after a throw-in, he finished unchallenged in the penalty area – but fell behind in the heat of the moment and lifted the ball over the crossbar (48′). Pacho’s attempt from a Philipp Max free kick also came up short (57′), while sixty seconds later Asano just missed his goal on the opposite side.
By swapping Marmoush for Etikité, Toppmöller gave the signal for the final offensive. The Frankfurters were now visibly restricting VfL, but they didn’t know what to do with their advantages. The fact that defense boss Robin Koch received a fifth yellow card in the 80th minute and therefore cannot be there in Freiburg next weekend increased Frankfurt’s frustration: They don’t feel like a team that has to be considered a serious contender for a European starting place can present.
