Theofanis Gekas started up front with Alex Meier, Caio and Pirmin Schwegler in midfield, Patrick Ochs on the right and Benny Koehler on the left wing. The starting back four (Tzavellas, Russ, Franz, Jung) remained unchanged from last game which seems special these days for the Eintracht line-up.
The opening 15 minutes were pretty quiet with a few harmless shots, various free kicks and some offside situations. The match picked up with an Ochs volley from a Tzavellas cross after 22 minutes which was saved by Freiburg keeper Baumann. Then Gekas picked up a long ball with him and Caio being behind the defense line but the Greek’s clumsy pass was hard to control for Caio (39’). The following corner was eventually picked up by Schwegler who had a go from 22 meters but his shot went over the cross bar. Three minutes later a fine Jung pass was hit by Ochs in a good position inside the box but his shot also went over the goal – at this stage the opener would have been deserved for the Eagles. Instead it was half time with a 0-0 score line.
No subs were used after the break, and like in the first half it took a while until the game became lively. This time it was a Makiadi shot from 25 meters which just went over Oka Nikolov’s goal (58’). Five minutes later Gekas was at the end of a Tzavellas cross but his header was wide. In the following 15 minutes the hosts had a few good chances from close range headers (Cisse twice and Makiadi). Freiburg seemed slightly on the up until Maik Franz had a great shot from just outside the box – keeper Baumann's save deflected the ball against the cross bar.
21,900 saw an even game that was dominated by dead ball situations (35 free kicks, 11 corners, 7 offside situations). None of both teams were able to set the ‘lucky punch’, not even their top strikers Cisse (15 goals for Freibug this season) and Gekas (14 for Frankfurt) – currently only Bayern’s Gomez (16) has scored more often than these two. Eintracht manager Skibbe later in the game brought on Altintop for Koehler (79') and Fenin for Gekas (90'), Franz and Meier were booked.
For the Eagles the result feels like an improvement as they collected the first point after the winter break and did not concede a goal. The wait for the first Frankfurt goal in 2011 continues and hopefully might end next weekend when Eintracht will host Bayer Leverkusen (Saturday at 15.30h CET).
