Draw against Bochum | OneFootball

Eintracht shared the points in a 1-1 draw with VfL Bochum on Matchday 21, with Omar Marmoush’s opener quickly cancelled out.

The starting line-up showed six changes from the disappointing 2-0 defeat at Köln, although most of the affected players were unavailable for various reasons. Niels Nkounkou and Tuta missed out due to suspension following their red cards last Saturday, Sasa Kalajdzic was absent due to the birth of his child, Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe was sidelined by a muscular injury and Kevin Trapp was forced to pull out at short notice due to back problems. In their place came Jens Grahl, Willian Pacho, Omar Marmoush, Farès Chaibi and Philipp Max, while Aurélio Buta was preferred to Hrvoje Smolcic.

Fast start

Eintracht had a couple of early scares at the sold-out Deutsche Bank Park with Hugo Larsson having to clear the ball off the line from a free-kick – although the offside flag was up – and Matus Bero dragging a shot wide. The Eagles then took the lead with their first attempt on 14 minutes, when Chaibi played a perfectly weighted square pass into the path of fellow AFCON returnee Marmoush, who knocked the ball past goalkeeper Manuel Riemann before sliding it in. It was the Egyptian’s 13th goal in all competitions this season in his first appearance of the year.

However, the lead lasted just three minutes as Moritz Broschinski’s shot from the edge of the penalty area took a big deflection off Pacho, which wrongfooted Grahl and ended up in the back of the net. Eintracht suffered another blow shortly after that as Hugo Larsson was forced off with an injury, Donny van de Beek taking his place. For the rest of the first half, there were few incidents of note at either end as the score remained at 1-1 until half-time.

Chances but no more goals

The Eagles went on the attack in the second half and Marmoush had a good opportunity to net a second goal just two minutes in, but he fired just over from Mario Götze’s cut-back. Ten minutes later, Max’s in-swinging free-kick from the right landed at the feet of Pacho, but he couldn’t react quickly enough to direct it in. January signing Hugo Ekitike replaced Marmoush for his home debut and was immediately involved, dancing into the penalty area before teeing up Chaibi, who took too long and saw his effort blocked.

The pressure was growing from Eintracht but Bochum remained a threat on the counter, and Grahl was called into action to fend off Takuma Asano’s shot. The chances continued at the other end, with Ansgar Knauff volleying over from Max’s delivery and van de Beek having an effort blocked following a corner. It looked like either team could nick a winner and Grahl had to make another smart stop to deny Broschinski, but in the end the points were shared.