Eagles recover to draw 1-1 | OneFootball

There was no separating Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen in an eventful contest on Friday. Tuta was on target for the Eagles, for whom Nnamdi Collins made his debut.

Milos Veljkovic gave the visitors the lead in the second half before Werder’s Jens Stage was dismissed for a high challenge on Jean-Mattéo Bahoya. Tuta equalised for the Eagles not long afterwards, but the centre-back ended up following Stage down the tunnel for an overly robust challenge on Felix Agu. The draw extends Eintracht’s lead over seventh-placed Augsburg to six points, but Jess Thorup’s side still have a game in hand.

Skhiri misses out; Collins handed debut

Dino Toppmöller made three changes to the Eagles team that drew 0-0 with Union Berlin last Saturday. Ellyes Skhiri was ruled out at short notice with a calf problem, joining Hugo Ekitiké (adductor problem) and Niels Nkounkou (bench) in dropping out of the side. Philipp Max and Farès Chaibi were restored to the starting XI, while 20-year-old defender Nnamdi Collins was handed his senior Eintracht debut at Deutsche Bank Park.

Plenty of chances but no goals

Both teams had opportunities to make the breakthrough in an even first 45 minutes in Frankfurt. Max blazed over the crossbar from the edge of the box with six minutes on the clock, before Romano Schmid was denied by Eagles skipper Kevin Trapp at the other end – although the 24-year-old may have been narrowly offside in the build-up.

The game continued to ebb and flow, with Michael Zetterer parrying a fierce Omar Marmoush effort to safety and Stage forcing another impressive save out of Trapp midway through the half. Junior Dina Ebimbe failed to hit the target after fine work by Mario Götze to carve out the opening, but the best opportunity of the first half fell to Marmoush, who latched on to Ansgar Knauff’s pass but was unable to get the better of Zetterer.

Goalscorer Tuta dismissed late on

Götze sent a free header over the bar from Max’s delivery inside the opening 15 minutes of the second half, but it was Werder who broke the deadlock shortly after the hour mark. Stage’s shot from another Duksch delivery was parried by Trapp, but Veljkovic was on hand to slot the rebound past the Germany international. The goal was checked by VAR for a possible offside against the Bremen defender, but no infringement was spotted.

The pendulum swung back in Eintracht’s favour just over ten minutes later, when Stage was dismissed following another review by VAR, who deemed the 27-year-old’s challenge on Bahoya worthy of a straight red card. The Eagles made their numerical advantage count when Tuta sent a looping header over Zetterer and into the back of the net, but the evening ended on a sour note for the Brazilian when he was shown a second yellow card – which was upgraded to a straight red by VAR – for a late tackle on Agu.