The 15,000 sell-out crowd at Paderborn’s „Energieteam Arena“ saw an unchanged Eintracht line-up compared to the last two matchdays. Despite all players being fully fit Eagles manager Armin Veh relied on the team that had beaten FSV 6-1 last week, again in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
But Paderborn took control in the opening period of the game and scored right away from their first opportunity. Bundesliga 2 top scorer Proschwitz recorded his 15th of the season six minutes into the match when he was at the end of an attack via Kara and Meha. The Eagles had difficulties to get into the game and so the hosts extended their lead 12 minutes after the opener, Kara hit a smooth long range shot past Nikolov from around 20 meters (18’).
Set Piece Comeback
Benny Köhler then used a set piece to get one back, he hit a direct free-kick beautifully into the top right corner of the goal (26’) – 1-2! On the other side Meha also had an attempt from a long range free-kick but Nikolov kept it out of the goal (38’).
The Eagles now picked up their game and Lehmann had another attempt but SCP keeper Kruse caught it after the ball had taken a deflection (42’). Rode collected a mishit pass of Paderborn defender Strohdiek and set up Alex Meier in the middle who converted from close range – his 12th of the season (42’) – 2-2! Meier is now the second best scorer in the league and the top scoring midfielder.
No Changes – Lively Match
The managers made no changes to their teams during the break and both Eintracht with a Köhler shot (47‘) and Paderborn with a Meha attempt (50’) came close to scoring the lead but were denied by the respective keeper.
58 minutes into the match SCP took the lead again when Proschwitz played a neat through ball to Rupp who was onside and found the net after a decent run (58’). Eintracht manager Veh brought on Idrissou for Matmour and changed the formation to a 4-4-2 (60’).
Merciless Hosts
Paderborn showed no mercy and an efficient chance conversion, Wemmer scored their fourth after going past two Eintracht defenders (64’). Two minutes later Nikolov gave his all to deny Rupp his second in a one on one.
With 15 minutes to go Friend (had come on for Hoffer) headed towards the goal from a Djakpa cross but his attempt was cleared off the line (76’). The Eagles kept trying but hardly created chances after all. To the contrary, Nikolov again denied Brückner in stoppage time who was through on goal and could have scored another one for the hosts.
Tight Competition
The Eagles missed an opportunity to collect crucial points against a direct competitor. They remain second in the standings ahead of tomorrow’s final match of round 23 (Düsseldorf v Aachen). St. Pauli and Paderborn follow on 3rd and 4th and are now level on 46 points with Eintracht. Coming up is the home match against Energie Cottbus next Sunday at 13.30h CET.
