They also exist in this huge football stadium, the more level-headed moments when the tens of thousands watching the game up close have not yet fully switched into their loud supporter mode. In one of these moments, a few minutes before kick-off, Kevin Trapp and Mats Hummels briefly put their heads together, and quite a few would have liked to play mice: Did they perhaps share their frustration with Julian Nagelsmann?
The Frankfurt and Dortmund players are still among the heavyweights in their teams, but the national coach recently deemed them too light for the upcoming summer mission – and sorted them out for the upcoming international matches on Thursday. That’s why both of them will almost certainly not play a major role at the home European Championship.
On Sunday it was completely different. And it was not least down to Hummels who ensured that Eintracht did not achieve their goal from the outsider role they had courageously accepted. As the scorer to make it 2-1, the 35-year-old turned the tide in BVB’s favor in a game in which Frankfurt didn’t look like the logical loser for a long time, but ultimately lost 3-1. With their success, Dortmund moved further away from Eintracht in the table: after 26 match days, SGE, still in sixth place, remained on forty points, while Borussia, in fourth, now had ten more points.
Frankfurt Disturbance Maneuver
However, Dino Toppmöller’s team’s hope of being able to compete internationally again next season remains realistic – but the possibility of possibly even being able to earn participation in the Champion League has become significantly smaller. The result was “a bit lucky” for Dortmund, Trapp said afterwards, because he and his front men “hardly allowed anything to come out of the game. There was more in it for us.”
With just a few glances at the line-up sheet it was clear how Toppmöller had imagined pricking the favorite in such a way that he would not be able to show off his individual class: In the defensive midfield he relied on Ellyes Skhiri and Hugo Larsson to be with him Due to their strength in duels as a disruptive factor, Borussia’s offensive plans would be thwarted – and that worked very well for more than an hour. The duo paid particular attention to Julian Brandt and Marco Reus, who were mostly only able to escape the intense Frankfurt interference maneuvers in standard situations.
In order to achieve speed advantages against a defense that included two professionals, Emre Can and Hummels, who are far from being in the category of top speed sprinters in the league, Toppmöller offered a fast wingman in former Dortmund player Ansgar Knauff on the left side, whose urge to move was difficult to keep under control by (former Frankfurter) Marius Wolf as his direct opponent. In addition, a mishap by Wolf favored the promising start of Toppmöller’s people.
Ten days time
As he moved forward, he lost control of the ball, which was then shot away by Niels Nkounkou towards the kick-off circle; There, Nico Schlotterbeck extended Dortmund’s chain of errors by running too impetuously towards Marmoush and misjudging. The Egyptian suddenly had a free path from his own half, failed to finish past BVB goalkeeper Alexander Meyer, but Mario Götze used the follow-up shot with an overview to give Frankfurt the lead (13th).
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But BVB also had ideas with which, in the person of Niclas Füllkrug, they approached the goal with a header (in which Nkounkou saved in front of the line) and achieved it shortly afterwards: Donyell Malen first dribbled past Nkounkou and completed a pass across Penalty area and past all Eintracht guards, who found the desired receiver in Karim Adeyemi. The 22-year-old gave Trapp no chance when he scored from a few meters to make it 1-1 (33′).
Because more attention was then paid to ensuring that control of the ball was no longer so easily lost through less risky actions, the pace of the action decreased, which at times bordered on being hectic. Marmoush ended the pause with a shot that Meyer parried (67′), before Tuta blocked Brandt’s shot with his foot (71′) and Trapp saved a header from Malen (76′). A foul by substitute Aurelio Buta after a clumsy Frankfurt loss of the ball ruined their impressive efforts.
Hummels pushed the free kick due past Trapp into the net with a diving header in goalgetter style (81′). Emre Can increased the score to a flattering final score for Borussia (90th) with a penalty awarded by Robin Koch to Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. In order to “recover” from the defeat, as Trapp called it before the trip home to Hesse, there are now ten days left in the international break. Eintracht then have two home games against Union Berlin and Werder Bremen, which Trapp combined with the words that what was missed would then have to be remedied in order to assert themselves in the “relatively narrow zone” behind the top group. At least they took the certainty that they had what it took with them from Dortmund.
