After three away games in a row in all competitions, Eintracht returned to Deutsche Bank Park, where head coach Dino Toppmöller made five changes from the DFB Cup defeat at Leipzig on Wednesday. Hugo Larsson was ruled out by a muscular problem, while Nathaniel Brown, Ellyes Skhiri, Mario Götze and Nnamdi Collins reverted to the bench. Arthur Theate, Niels Nkounkou, Mo Dahoud, Farès Chaibi and Ansgar Knauff were the players to come into the starting XI.
No goals in scrappy first half
The first incident of the game occurred after just 16 seconds as Keven Schlotterbeck was shown the fastest yellow card of this Bundesliga season for a foul on Omar Marmoush. From the resulting free-kick, Tuta was unable to direct the ball goalwards at the far post.
That was rather indicative of what was to come in the first half, which was interrupted by a number of stoppages. Marmoush and Knauff both had half-chances for Eintracht, who struggled to break down Augsburg’s five-man defence, while the closest the visitors came was when Samuel Essende fired over.
The first shot on target didn’t come until the 45th minute, with Knauff’s solo effort being tipped behind by FCA goalkeeper Nediljko Labrovic, but despite six minutes of added time following a couple of lengthy injury stoppages, there was no breakthrough before half-time.
Four goals in 20 minutes
Toppmöller made a switch at the interval, taking off Nkounkou – who was on a booking – and bringing on Brown. And his team made a livelier start to the second period, with Chaibi and Knauff both having shots blocked from promising situations. Augsburg couldn’t get a body in the way of the goal that eventually broke the deadlock, though. Chaibi’s diagonal ball into the box was perfectly headed down by Knauff for Hugo Ekitiké to tap in his seventh Bundesliga goal of the season.
However, the lead didn’t last long as the visitors levelled just five minutes later. Phillip Tietz’s shot from the left of the penalty area was too powerful for Kevin Trapp, and despite a suspicion of offside and a VAR check, the goal stood. Augsburg completed a surprising turnaround shortly after, when Trapp spilled Arne Maier’s shot and Essende swept in the rebound.
Toppmöller responded with a triple change and it was one of his substitutes, Can Uzun, who restored parity just three minutes later, cutting inside and unleashing a strike that was deflected into the net. For the remainder of the match, it was Eintracht who tried to find a winner while Augsburg were happy to hold onto the point. Jean-Matté0 Bahoya's cushioned volley was saved by Labrovic in stoppage time and Frankfurt had to settle for a draw.