Defeat in friendly

New signing Donny van de Beek was included in the starting line-up following his arrival on loan from Manchester United at the start of the week. The Dutchman was deployed in an attacking role behind striker Jessic Ngankam, in an otherwise familiar-looking team.

Eintracht goal sparks visitors into life

Eintracht took control in the early stages at an empty Deutsche Bank Park and it was van de Beek who set up the first chance for Junior Dina Ebimbe, who could only roll the ball into the arms of goalkeeper Noah Atubolo. Just moments later, Hugo Larsson narrowly missed the target with a long-range effort. With 20 minutes gone, Ngankam fired over from the edge of the area, but the Eagles took a deserved lead four minutes later, Robin Koch heading home from Niels Nkounkou’s cross.

The lead lasted just five minutes, though, as Freiburg equalised with their first real chance. From Vincenzo Grifo’s free kick, the ball bounced favourably for Roland Sallai to volley into the bottom corner. It took another five minutes for the visitors to complete the turnaround, Merlin Röhl heading the rebound beyond Kevin Trapp after his header had been brilliantly saved by the Frankfurt goalkeeper. Eintracht’s only chance to restore parity before half-time fell to Ansgar Knauff, but he sliced his volley wide on his weaker left foot.

Freiburg clinical

Dino Toppmöller made three substitutions at the break, with Kristijan Jakic, Aurelio Buta and Jens Petter Hauge replacing Koch, Dina Ebimbe and van de Beek. However, Freiburg came out of the blocks quicker and extended their lead in the 48th minute, Sallai netting his second goal with a fierce volley. Christian Streich’s men seemed to be scoring from every opportunity and made it 4-1 on 55 minutes, Michael Gregoritsch finishing off a swift counter-attack.

Things got worse for Eintracht eight minutes later when Tuta’s foul on Sallai resulted in a penalty, which Grifo converted. The contest somewhat petered out after that, with both teams also making several substitutions. Buta did reduce the deficit with a fine shot from the edge of the area in the 76th minute, meaning a final scoreline of 5-2.

“We’ve been quite attacking in our training this week and had good passages of play, but we didn’t score enough goals from our attacking situations,” analysed head coach Dino Toppmöller shortly after the final whistle. “At the back we made one or two mistakes too many, particularly in the second half when we played with a different defence. Overall there were too many individual errors. Obviously it annoys me when you concede five goals.”