Collective frustration aside, Hinteregger defends controversial penalty call
Adi Hütter's Eintracht Frankfurt struggled to keep up with opponents VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga's Friday night fixture. Both players and coach expressed their frustration after dropping a late result to extend their winless run to eight games.
| Martin Hinteregger. | Photo: Werner100359, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Hütter's players seemed to echo his sentiments. Striker Bas Dost conceded "Wolfsburg always got the ball back too quickly" while defender Martin Hinteregger noted "we didn't play optimally going forward."
Had the SGE been able to hang on for a draw, the power of semantics might have masked their recent run of poor form. A tie would have at least enabled the "draw-kings" of the league to label themselves undefeated through six fixtures. Instead, the team looks set for a long period of self-critical introspection as the abridged winter break draws nearer.
Dost scored Frankfurt's lone goal on a converted penalty in the 63rd. The play preceding the referee's point to the spot was rather controversial. WOB defender John Anthony Brooks appeared to only lightly shove Hinteregger in the box on a contested set-piece aerial duel. The Austrian center-back, who regularly engages in such actions himself, went to ground in a manner that looked somewhat simulative.
A slow-motion VAR review led match official Markus Schmidt to change his mind about what he had seen in real-time.
Hinteregger defended himself when speaking to the DAZN microphones after the match.
"That was a clear penalty," Hinteregger insisted, "I would have been able to get a header of the ball in there. He [Brooks] didn't act intelligently."