The Eagles started with one change to the starting line-up of last week's win away to Braunschweig: Schwegler was out with a bad back, Matmour replaced him with his first start of the season, Rode moved back to defensive midfield alongside Lehmann. Oldie but goldie Nikolov in goal was captain this time.
There was a flair of top flight football to it when 42,000 made their way to Commerzbank Arena for this 2. Bundesliga top match. And again Eintracht scored an early goal, Köhler crossed the ball from the left which took a strange trajectory, Düsseldorf keeper Ratajczak got a hand to it but the ball bounced to Jung who headed in (3').
Eintracht started well and nearly topped up the lead when Gekas was through on goal but could not get the ball past Ratajczak (11'). But Düsseldorf came back and had four rather good chances to score within six minutes. Nikolov was at the end of three promising moves by Fortuna which did not find a player to finish, then Rösler came close with a free-kick which was wide (19').
Matmour volleyed a Köhler cross over the bar after 28 minutes, then Nikolov was at the end of a Lambertz try (33'). The match was tense, it was obvious that two contenders for promotion were after an important win. Alex Meier was yellow carded after 44 minutes and no major events occured until the break.
Düsseldorf came out of the changing rooms with a more focused attitude and the Eagles struggled to cope with the pressure at this stage. Beister chipped the ball over Nikolov's goal (48'), then Anderson came close for the Eagles when he headed a Jung corner over the bar (50'). But Beister scored the equaliser with a dry finish from the edge of the box after a fast build up from midfield (54'), it was a deserved goal in this period.
Both teams eliminated each other's efforts mostly, then Eintracht came back to build up some pressure. Köhler (61') and Gekas (67') tried their luck to no effect, so did Anderson (73') but his header from a Jung corner was cleared just before the goal line. Hoffer who had come on for Matmour after 64 minutes had a go but the Fortuna keeper Ratajczak was at the end of it (83'). Then Gekas superbly controlled a headed flick-on and fired away but Ratajczak denied him scoring the lead with a classy save (84').
Caio came on for Köhler (87') and two minutes later Alex Meier was sent off with a second yellow card for a rather harmless foul (89'). Those were the final happenings of a match in which Eintracht failed to extend the early lead but came back from being under pressure to create some scoring opportunities towards the final whistle. They drop to 7th spot in the standings.
The Eagles, Düsseldorf and St. Pauli remain the only three unbeaten 2. Bundesliga teams. Coming up is the Frankfurt derby FSV against Eintracht on Sunday at 13.30h CET.
