The crowd of just under 41,000 saw a mostly even game up until the last 25 minutes in which Eintracht focussed mainly on organising their defense. Manager Skibbe changed the starting line-up on four positions, youngster Rode played in center midfield, Vasoski started in center defense, Altintop and Heller were meant to feed Gekas with key passes who was the lone striker up front. Jung and Caio were out injured, Meier and Koehler were on the bench.
There were little highlights in the first half as both teams did not allow too many attempts towards their goals. A few long range shots happened on both ends but not many attacks were channeled down the wings on either side. In a quite physical Bundesliga meeting the majority of the action happened in midfield with lots of duels and tacklings.
The hosts had a couple of good scoring opportunities after around half an hour when Cohen’s header went just wide, and after a corner Eintracht defender Russ nearly scored an own goal - keeper Nikolov solved the situation with an excellent stop. Still the 0-0 half time score seemed the logic consequence to a match that was hardly entertaining in the first 45 minutes.
Both managers did not bring on any subs right after the break but the game picked up pace then, also the Eagles seemed to try harder to get a momentum going. A big chance fell to Nuernberg’s Hegeler who was free on goal but hit the ball over the cross bar. On the other side Rode scored after a great build up via Heller and Gekas, but the latter was called offside.
The first goal came from an indirect free kick and Schieber hit it from just under 30 meters, the ball took a tricky swerve and ended up in the net (67’). It was probably the deciding moment of the game as Eintracht never recovered from it. Skibbe brought on Fenin and Amanatidis for Ochs and Altintop with around 20 minutes to go (Koehler was already on the pitch after replacing Heller), but they also did not manage to help the team turning it around. To the opposite – with late goals of Mak (87’) and Cohen (90’) the hosts made the win look a touch to high but still deserved.
The Eagles seemed stunned and unstable at some stage, no wonder after now six games without scoring. The uneasy look at the Bundesliga standings confirms that the team is in a dangerous situation getting closer to the relegation zone with every recent matchday. Coming up are two consecutive home games in a row, the ever so important match against VfB Stuttgart at home next Sunday (kick off 15.30h CET) and the one against 1. FC Kaiserslautern a week later.
