Free-kick condemns Eagles to defeat | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt were beaten 1-0 by Fulham in their final friendly of pre-season. Raúl Jiménez scored the game’s only goal, curling home a free-kick in the first half.

Strong Eagles line-up despite absentees

Goalkeeper Kaua Santos is still recovering from a torn cruciate knee ligament, while Nene Brown, Ellyes Skhiri and Can Uzun all missed out with minor injuries. Recent signing Ritsu Doan and Elye Wahi were unavailable after featuring in a 3-1 behind-closed-doors victory over Fulham earlier on Saturday, in which Doan and Wahi (2) both found the net.

Eagles head coach Dino Toppmöller was still able to field a strong team for the evening kick-off, though, with goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, Rasmus Kristensen, Mario Götze and summer signing Jonny Burkardt all in the starting XI.

Jiménez free-kick sails in

A fierce Farès Chaibi drive tested Bernd Leno’s reflexes inside the opening minute at Craven Cottage, but the home side still had the better of the first-half opportunities. Alex Iwobi – Eintracht legend Jay-Jay Okocha’s nephew – struck the side-netting from Josh King’s pass midway through the first period, but the ball was in the back of Trapp’s net ten minutes later when Jiménez curled a free-kick over the wall and into the corner from just outside the Eintracht box.

Trapp did well to deny Fulham a second when he saved Harry Wilson’s shot moments after Jiménez’s opener. At the other end, Leno had little else to do until five minutes before the interval, when he had to race off his line to clear a long ball towards Jean-Mattéo Bahoya.

Chaibi rattles post  Arthur Theate sent a looping header from Chaibi’s corner into Leno’s arms as Eintracht improved after the restart, but it wasn’t long before Toppmöller turned to his bench. Hugo Larsson, Ansgar Knauff and Götze were replaced by Oscar Højlund, Paxten Aaronson and Niels Nkounkou, who was particularly lively after entering the fray.

The full-back soon stung Leno’s palms with a powerful, left-footed effort, but it was Chaibi who went closest to firing the Eagles back on level terms with a sweetly struck, long-range shot which cannoned off the woodwork. Nkounkou sent a first-time volley over the bar after Michy Batshuayi had replaced Burkardt for the closing stages, but Fulham held on to claim a narrow victory.

Toppmöller said afterwards: “An intensive, tiring pre-season has come to an end. We feel like we’re ready for the opening day of the season. We didn’t give away much against Fulham today. We were missing that killer touch up front, which might be because of our tough pre-season with so many training sessions. We’ll get plenty of rest now and then get ready for our first competitive game of the campaign.”