dino Toppmöller also had his own experience with the mood of the Eintracht fans. If his team wins, the coach concluded in recent days, many people immediately talk about the Champions League. And the other extreme can be observed: if the Frankfurt team is not successful, there will immediately be talk of a relegation battle.

The 43-year-old left no doubt that thinking in black and white is too brazen for him. He asked for more realism. A pious wish. As his players had noticed many deficiencies in the defeat in Cologne (0-2), many, including the club's board, publicly expressed their discontent and demanded different behavior. The result of the match against VfL Bochum Once again it did not live up to expectations: the Hessians could not overcome the 1-1 draw.

With the eighth draw on matchday 21 of the Bundesliga, they maintained their position in the top third of the table. Now they have 32 points, but in sixth place they could not reduce the difference with Leipzig (37) and Dortmund (40), who surpassed them. Partial success will hardly relax the work environment in which Toppmöller works with the team. “The result is, of course, annoying, we are disappointed,” said sporting director Markus Krösche. “We made a lot of simple mistakes. “We did much better in the second half and put energy on the field, but unfortunately we didn't score the goals.”

Entry to the Eintracht starting eleven is prohibited

The Frankfurt football teacher had to react to the bad news shortly before the start of the match: Kevin Trapp He interrupted the warm-up program and came out again due to back problems. Substitute Jens Grahl moved between the posts in place of the starting goalkeeper; The 35-year-old made his fifth substitute appearance in this round.

None of the five winter signings was in Frankfurt's starting eleven. On the one hand, because like Hugo Etikité, they are not yet in shape; The Frenchman did not make his debut at home until he came on in the 64th minute. For Sasa Kalajdzic, who also hopes to establish himself in Frankfurt, the reason for not being nominated was positive: her partner gave birth to her son early in the morning pm.

Without the newcomers, the offensive game worked again Omar Marmush aligned as a central point. And the Egyptian continued with what he had left off before leaving for the African Cup: scoring goals for Eintracht. With an assist from Fares Chaibi, Marmoush rounded VfL goalkeeper Manuel Riemann and scored to make it 1-0 (14th minute). It was the 25-year-old's 13th goal of the season.

The joy of his leadership did not last long until Toppmöller's election. Moritz Broschinski immediately equalized. In his shot, the Bochum player had the collaboration of Eintracht defender Willian Pacho, who deflected the ball and in an unstoppable arc passed over Grahl and entered the goal (17th).

Van de Beek enters the game early

Toppmöller reacted to the absence of Hugo Larsson due to injury and brought on Donny van de Beeks (20'). Before the match against Bochum, the coach also said about the Dutchman, on loan from Manchester United, that he wanted to strengthen him with “calm and patience” because after months he was still far from his best form. of being ignored. But since the staff shortage in front of 57,500 spectators was great on Saturday (which was also contributed by the absences of the suspended Tuta and Nkounkou, as well as Ebimbe's injury), Toppmöller had to act against his intentions.

Van de Beek struggled to make his mark in midfield. He did not shine, he showed signs of his ability with the ball at times and was brought down again in the 84th minute to make way for Sebastian Rode, from whom Toppmöller expected more power for the final attack. A counterattack started by Takuma Asano almost gave the second goal to VfL, who appeared several times quickly in the opponent's half, but Kevin Stöger missed by one meter (26th).

At the start of the second half, Marmoush missed a promising opportunity to put Eintracht ahead again. Driven by Mario Götze, who reached the point faster than the Bochum players around him after a throw-in, he finished unopposed in the area, but in the heat of the moment he fell behind and lifted the ball over the crossbar ( 48'). Pacho's attempt after a Philipp Max free kick also fell short (57'), while sixty seconds later Asano narrowly missed his goal on the opposite side.

By exchanging Marmoush for Etikité, Toppmöller gave the signal for the final offensive. Frankfurt were now visibly restricting VfL, but did not know what to do with their advantages. The fact that the head of the defense, Robin Koch, received the fifth yellow card in the 80th minute and therefore could not be in Freiburg next weekend, increased Frankfurt's frustration: they do not feel like a team that he should be considered a serious contender for a tenured position in Europe. can present.