Defeat at home to Bielefeld | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt are still waiting for their first win of the year after losing 2-0 at home to Arminia Bielefeld on Friday evening.

Head coach Oliver Glasner welcomed key duo Kevin Trapp and Filip Kostic back to the starting line-up after they missed last Sunday’s match against Augsburg following positive coronavirus tests. That meant Diant Ramaj and Almamy Toure dropped back to the bench, while the other change saw Martin Hinteregger preferred to Makoto Hasebe at the back. New signing Ansgar Knauff was not ready to be included in the squad.

Wimmer punishes Eintracht

The 1,000 spectators allowed into Deutsche Bank Park saw the home side make the worst possible start. In their first attack, Bielefeld worked the ball across the edge of the penalty and Timothy Chandler’s sliding challenge only pushed the ball into the path of Patrick Wimmer, who drilled it beyond Trapp with five minutes gone. The high-tempo start was maintained and the Eagles had a couple of chances to equalise, with Daichi Kamada curling the ball into the arms of Stefan Ortega and Jesper Lindström volleying over.

The visitors proved more effective in front of goal, though, and doubled their advantage on 27 minutes. Wimmer was the provider this time, cutting back and playing a rabona cross into the middle, which Alessandro Schöpf bundled in with his chest. Again Eintracht responded by creating chances, but Rafael Borré was twice denied by Ortega and it remained 2-0 at half-time.

No way back

The Eagles continued to dominate possession after the restart but struggled to find clear chances as Bielefeld put increasing numbers of bodies behind the ball. Lindström went close in the 55th minute with a move started and finished by him, but his final attempt was blocked by Ortega. Soon after, Kostic hit the side netting from the left of the penalty area.

Glasner made attacking substitutions with strikers Goncalo Paciencia and Ragnar Ache both coming on, but Arminia could have nicked a third when Wimmer again got the better of the Eintracht defence, only to fire over. The Eagles were camped in the Bielefeld half for the closing stages but failed to register any notable opportunities until the third minute of added time, when Borré was denied one-on-one by an excellent save from Ortega, which compounded a frustrating night.

Summary: Deserved defeat

It was a night to forget for Eintracht, who never managed to recover from that early deficit against an efficient and well-organised Bielefeld side. Having probably deserved more points from their opening two matches of the second half of the season, Glasner’s men can have no complaints about this result.

SGE line-up

Trapp – Tuta, Hinteregger (Hasebe 46’), Ndicka – Chandler (Ache 74’), Rode (Paciencia 61’), Sow, Kostic – Kamada (Hrustic 87’), Lindström – Borré

Goal 0-1 Wimmer (5') 0-2 Schöpf (27')