Dino Toppmöller strode onto the pitch satisfied and congratulated his exhausted but cheerful Eintracht Frankfurt players on their third win in a row. The Hessians celebrated a successful dress rehearsal for the start of the reformed Europa League and climbed to third place in the Bundesliga, at least overnight, thanks to a 2-0 (1-0) win against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
What he liked best was “the defensive mentality that we showed again today,” said coach Toppmöller on the pay-TV channel Sky. In front of 58,000 spectators, Hugo Larsson scored in the 31st minute and Omar Marmoush (80th) for Frankfurt, who will face Czech representative Viktoria Pilsen for their first European party next Thursday. “It’s just going well, we’re really enjoying being on the pitch,” emphasized attacker Igor Matanovic.
Borussia, on the other hand, are already stuck at the bottom of the table with just three points and are far from in a celebratory mood. They had given Frankfurt too many opportunities to take advantage of them, said Gladbach’s Rocco Reitz: “That killed us in the end.” They had played a decent to good away game, said teammate Kevin Stöger, they just didn’t have the goals.
Eintracht was missing not only the injured goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, but also the experienced Mario Götze. The 2014 world champion had to sit out due to an infection. At Borussia, in addition to regular goalkeeper Jonas Omlin (tendon injury), offensive player Franck Honorat was also out at short notice due to calf problems. Robin Hack moved into the starting lineup for the Frenchman.
Eintracht starts with pressure
From the beginning, the game was lively, with the home team applying a lot of pressure. However, the Hessians were initially unable to create any chances because the visitors’ defense was well organized and offered little space. Mönchengladbach relied primarily on counterattacks, which were dangerous in the beginning. However, the finishing lacked precision, meaning that Eintracht keeper Kaua Santos was hardly challenged in the first half.
The first big opportunity of the game fell to Eintracht. A shot attempt by Marmoush landed at Hugo Ekitiké, but the visibly surprised Frenchman pushed the ball past the empty goal from close range. Just five minutes later, however, the home team were celebrating. Ansgar Knauff headed a cross from Ekitiké into the middle, where Larsson finished completely unmarked.
The guests’ response was not long in coming. Reitz had the chance to equalize, but Santos blocked the low shot. The 21-year-old Brazilian was also on the spot shortly after the restart when Nathan Ngoumou shot. An attempt by Stöger from distance also posed no problems for Trapp’s replacement between the posts of the Frankfurt goal.
Brilliant save from the Eintracht keeper
Nevertheless, Santos increasingly came into focus as Borussia now did much more to attack. After just under an hour, Ngoumou again had the chance to equalize, but he was stopped by the brilliantly reacting Eintracht goalkeeper. His teammates in front of him were barely able to put together a well-thought-out attack. Moritz Nicolas only had to intervene in the visitors’ goal when Ekitiké lobbed the ball. Mönchengladbach kept the pressure on, but were unlucky when Reitz hit the post. This came back to haunt them in the end, as Marmoush scored after a fine individual effort.
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