The match bewteen 3rd ranked Frankfurt and 5th ranked Pauli in front of a sell out crowd of 24,487 was entertaining throughout. Eagles manager Armin Veh changed the tactical formation to a 4-2-3-1 with Matmour starting in right midfield instead of Gekas up front. Alex Meier had a first chance with a close range shot from tight angle, Tschauner showed his first save of the evening (10') - many were to follow. On the other side Bartels was aiming too high when he could have scored the lead for the hosts (12').
Schildenfeld came close with a header from a Schwegler free-kick cross which was saved, the following Rode shot was deflected and went out for a corner (15'). Then Matmour had to be substituted with an injury following an elbow check by Tschauner after only 24 minutes, Gekas came on. Veh switched back to the recent standard 4-4-2 formation with Idrissou slightly behind the Greek striker.
The Eagles showed some dominance and the will to win the game, still the hosts took the lead with a half chance after a corner when their captain Morena scored from close range, the ball had trundled through Eintracht's defense without clearance (32'). Eintracht came straight back with a double chance, first Rode's shot into the far corner was saved, then Meier took the second chance but his strike was blocked by Schachten (38'). Pauli's lead at half time was somewhat lucky.
Despite Eintracht pushing for the equalizer the first chance after the break fell to St. Pauli when Kruse passed into the box but Djakpa and Anderson cleared the ball this time. Then Schwegler was hit by something thrown onto the pitch by St. Pauli fans, after receiving treatment he continued to play. A neat Meier pass found Idrissou who fired off a curling shot from around 20 meters but once again Tschauner was at the end of it with a great save (52'). The Pauli keeper also denied Gekas the equalizer who had a try from close range and tight angle following a Djakpa cross (57').
Then Idrissou headed one of a series of Schwegler corners over the bar (62'). Eintracht's skipper and also Meier showed great skills in midfield with confident passing and vision, they kept using the wings and the forwards to create chances. Another Gekas attempt was cleared off the line by Morena (66').
The second goal for Pauli came out of the blue, just like the first one. Following a fast break Bartels got past the Eintracht defense on the right and crossed in for Kruse to finish with a neat shot into the top right corner (67'). It was a perplexing score line with all the pressure Eintracht had put on.
The spirits of the Eagles seemed dampened now, Veh tried to support the attack by bringing on Caio and Rob Friend but the match seemed decided though Eintracht kept trying. Despite a more than decent performance they left the "Millerntor-Stadion" empty handed and suffered the second defeat of the season. They are still in spot three in the standings but St. Pauli and Paderborn are now both level with them on 39 points.
It will be a highly interesting second half to the season with a tight top 5 group of teams battling it out for promotion. Eintracht's season will restart on February the 5th with the home match against Braunschweig.
