For the club’s first ever meeting with Latvian opposition, head coach Dino Toppmöller made four changes following the 2-1 defeat at Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday. Summer signing Can Uzun was handed his full debut, while Aurèle Amenda, Mo Dahoud and Igor Matanovic also came in. Arthur Theate – having started every match so far this season – Hugo Larsson, Mario Götze and Hugo Ekitiké were the players given a rest on the bench.
Cagey first half
The sell-out crowd in the Frankfurt City Forest witnessed a rather uneventful first half, with Frankfurt probing but struggling to find spaces in the well-organised RFS defence. The 15th minute saw the first chance for both teams, Adam Markhiyev firing over from a tight angle following a throw-in for the visitors before Omar Marmoush was smothered by goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa at the other end after being sent through.
The next attempt on goal didn’t arrive until the 33rd minute, when Matanovic’s effort from distance sailed just wide of the post. Shortly after that, Junior Dina Ebimbe shot straight at Ondoa. The Eagles couldn’t find the clear-cut opening they needed and the first half finished without a goal.
Larsson makes the difference
Eintracht began the second period with Larsson in place of Dahoud, and with more purpose. In fact, the ball was in the net on 48 minutes but Tuta was clearly offside when he struck from close range. Minutes later, Marmoush ran onto a perfectly timed pass from Niels Nkounkou but, for once, his aim was off. The Egyptian then returned the favour for Nkounkou, who fired into the side netting from a tight angle.
RFS still posed a threat on the counter at times and Kevin Trapp was called on to make a fine save after a mistake from Nkounkou let in Janis Ikaunieks. Eintracht remained the dominant side, though, and thought they’d been awarded a penalty when Marmoush was brought down by Lasha Odisharia, but VAR correctly intervened and determined that the contact was outside the box.
Toppmöller threw on Ekitiké, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya and Ansgar Knauff as his side continued to search for a breakthrough, which finally came in the 79th minute. Marmoush received the ball just outside the area and played a weighted pass into the path of Larsson, who held off his marker before clipping the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper. Immediately after that, RFS had their best chance of the game but, thankfully from a Frankfurt point of view, the crossbar prevented Markhiyev from equalising.
That was the closest the spirited visitors came to salvaging a point as the Eagles saw out an unspectacular but important win, which takes them to seven points after three games in the league phase.
