Burkardt saves the day for Frankfurt in Paderborn as penalty king Atubolu delivers in different way
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Adi Hütter surprisingly left Germany international Younes Ebnoutalib on the bench, but fellow striker Jonathan Burkardt gave them an early lead at the midpoint of a lively first-half. Ritsu Doan and Lillian Brassier had the game's first chances inside the first ten minutes.
Noah Atubolu's first save arrived minutes later as he parried away Gabriel Vidovic's curling effort. Against the run of play, the visitors took the lead as Fares Chaïbi punished Paderborn's disorganized defense with a brilliant assist for Burkardt.
Stefano Marino hit the crossbar five minutes later before Chaïbi nearly added a goal to his assist. The hosts got a deserved equalizer just before the half-time break as the unmarked Raphael Obermair nutmegged Atubolu with a quickfire finish.
After his assist to Obermair's goal, Ruben Müller nearly scored early after the restart before another decent chance for US midfielder Santiago Castaneda. Chaïbi also had a chance for his second direct goal involvement inside the lively ten minutes right after the half-time break.
With 25 minutes left to play, both coaches already made seven substitutions in total. 16-year-old midfielder Niko Ilicevic entered the scene for his second Bundesliga appearance, but Paderborn took the lead for the first time after he was dispossessed in the danger zone.
Brassier had a difficult game, and he committed a foul on substitute Marvin Pieringer inside the box. Atubolu, who saved all the previous six penalty-kicks he has faced at Freiburg and Frankfurt, dived the right way, but he wasn't able to deny Pieringer his first Paderborn goal.
Frankfurt's hopes of getting back to the game faced a huge blow a couple of minutes later as Elias Baum saw his second yellow card. Ralf Kettemann subbed off half-time substitute Deniz Zeitler in fear of a similar outcome, but the hosts failed to hold on to their slender lead.
Atubolu's penalty-kick record came to an end, but he guided Chaïbi's corner-kick to Burkardt's direction as the striker leveled the score with an unorthodox finish in the last action of the game.
Paderborn tied a club-record four Bundesliga games unbeaten run, but they have only beaten HSV in this run. Frankfurt will be in eight place as the Bundesliga will now take a second international break.
