Honours even as Paciencia rocket grabs draw for Frankfurt
Alassane Plea scored early for the visitors, while second half substitutions swung the game in Frankfurt's favour to level matters 1-1.
Having booked their place in the Europa League final midweek, Eintracht Frankfurt rested a lot of their key men for their clash with Borussia Monchengladbach today. Starts were given to more peripheral squad players like Barkok, Ilsanker, and Lammers, while the likes of Kostic, Kamada and Sow were afforded rests. After a pretty dismal season thus far, Gladbach only had pride left to play for, fielding a near full strength side minus the injured Kramer in midfield, and Sommer in goal.
Die Fohlen Elf made the dream start inside 4 minutes when they made it 0-1 through Alassane Plea. Stindl threaded the eye of a needle to play Lainer in behind the flat-footed Chandler, allowing the Austrian wing-back to square the ball for the easiest of finishes for the French frontman.
The game was short of chances after the initial goal, and the match entered a bit of a lull for the following quarter of an hour. On his 50th appearance for Frankfurt, Ilsanker almost looped a headed effort into the net from a corner on 30 minutes, however the ball narrowly sailed the wrong side of the crossbar and onto the roof of the net. No other chances really materialised for either side before the break as Frankfurt lacked that clinical edge up top, while most of Gladbach’s joy came from the wing play of Netz and Lainer.
Frankfurt made one alteration at the interval – the talismanic figure of Filip Kostic entered the fray for Tuta. The Serbian winger almost gave his side the ideal start to the second half when his corner found Ilsanker again. The veteran midfielder’s goal bound drive was destined for the bottom corner but for the intervention of Plea to clear off the line.
Hauge, who filled in for Lindstrom last Thursday night, was introduced, and so to Kamada just before the hour mark as Glasner went in search of retrieving some points. The substitutions made an instant impact with visibly improved attacking output from the home side. Die Adler went one step further and drew themselves level moments later on 66 minutes trough a Goncalo Paciencia thunderbolt. The Portuguese striker picked the ball up and hammered his shot passed the chanceless Sippel from 30 yards to level it up at 1-1.
Netz tested Trapp on 73 minutes, but the German shot stopper was more than equal to it. A Jonas Hofmann free kick presented Friedrich with a reasonable opportunity minutes later, but once more Gladbach were foiled by Trapp. Frankfurt thought they bagged the winning goal with a minute of normal time to play, but the effort was quickly ruled out for offside – Kamada the guilty party who turned home Ndicka’s header. Spoils shared in the end as neither team could find the goal to secure all three points.