Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 Bayer Leverkusen
Eintracht Frankfurt all but ended Bayer Leverkusen's title dream as they won out by the odd goal in five in a highly entertaining game of football at the Commerzbank Arena.
In a highly watchable first half it was the hosts who just about had the upper hand and duly took the lead just before the half hour mark when Eren Derdiyok clearly fouled Marco Russ in the box. Referee Wolfgang Stark immediately pointed to the spot and Selim Teber stepped up confidently to roll the resulting penalty into the right hand corner.
Kießling up to 18
The lead lasted just five minutes however as Toni Kroos, Derdiyok and Stefan Kießling combined superbly for the equaliser, the latter finishing with aplomb from just inside the box to ensure parity at the interval.
Kießling struck again within a minute of the restart, finishing confidently past Oka Nikolov after a wonderful through ball from Kroos to put the visitors in front. Just three minutes later, however, and the tables turned completely as Daniel Schwaab was dismissed for a wild tackle from behind on Ümit Korkmaz as he broke down the left.
Franz wins it for Frankfurt
That allowed Frankfurt more space to attack and they did so impressively, Caio's outstanding 62nd minute strike from all of 35 yards crashing into the net via the crossbar with Rene Adler at full stretch. It was a deserved leveller for the hosts, who had another goal disallowed shortly afterwards when Halil Altintop strayed into an offside position.
Frankfurt continued to enjoy the bulk of the play with their numerical advantage and it required a superb reflex save from Adler to deny Altintop again as he was sent into the clear by Martin Fenin. The winner was on the cards, though, and arrived in the final minute of the game when Maik Franz acrobatically diverted an Alexander Meier header past Adler to give Eintracht the points.
Michael Skibbe's troops thus maintain their push for fifth place, closing the gap between themselves and Werder Bremen to just four points, while Leverkusen lose their fourth match in five and suffer yet another serious dent to their hopes of Champions League qualification.
Frankfurt: Nikolov - Jung, Franz, Russ, Köhler - Meier, Teber (Fenin 59') - P. Ochs (M. Heller 85'), Korkmaz (Tsoumou 89') - Caio, Halil Altintop
Leverkusen: Adler - Schwaab, M. Friedrich, Hyypiä, Castro - Reinartz, Vidal - Barnetta (L. Bender 89'), Kroos (Kadlec 54') - Derdiyok, Kießling
Goals: 1-0 Teber (pen 28'), 1-1 Kießling (33'), 1-2 Kießling (46'), 2-2 Caio (62'), 3-2 Franz (89')
Red card: Schwaab (serious foul play 49')
Attendance: 50,900 (Commerzbank Arena)
