Goalless draw on Nacho debut | OneFootball

The 18-year-old striker was handed his first-team bow as Eintracht and Freiburg played out an entertaining goalless draw that extends the Eagles’ unbeaten run to nine matches.

Farès Chaibi and Omar Marmoush went closest for Dino Toppmöller’s side in an even contest, while Kevin Trapp pulled off fine saves to deny Ritsu Doan and Vincenzo Grifo. Junior Adamu thought he had earned the visitors all three points at Deutsche Bank Park, but the forward’s late header was ruled out for offside.

Rode ruled out, Götze on bench

Toppmöller made four changes to the Eintracht side that defeated Aberdeen in their opening Europa Conference League group game on Thursday. Injured captain Sebastian Rode was replaced in midfield by Hugo Larsson, while Mario Götze – who suffered a knock against the Scottish Premiership side – was left on the bench in favour of Chaibi. Tuta and Aurélio Buta were also preferred to Hrvoje Smolcic and Brenden Aaronson.

Even first half

The first clear-cut opening of the contest fell Freiburg’s way after just four minutes, but Trapp did well to palm Doan’s goal-bound header wide of the post. Eintracht had a penalty appeal waved away by referee Felix Zwayer after a coming-together between Buta and Lukas Kübler, and Chaibi stung the palms of Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu as the home side slowly settled into the game.

Roland Sallai and Ellyes Skhiri traded half-chances but it was Freiburg who finished the half on top, Lukas Höler sending a close-range effort narrowly wide of Trapp’s left-hand post eight minutes before the interval. There was also a late VAR check for a possible red card for Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe, but the Frenchman escaped with a caution after accidentally catching Kiliann Sildillia on the ankle.

No way through

Toppmöller’s side roared out of the traps after half-time and went close to breaking the deadlock within seconds of the restart, but Atubolu was equal to Marmoush’s shot from Chaibi’s lay-off. Trapp had to be on his toes to deny Grifo a few minutes later but Eintracht continued to pin Christian Streich’s team back inside their own half – albeit without properly testing Atubolu in the Freiburg goal.

Götze, Ansgar Knauff, Jessic Ngankam and Philipp Max were all introduced as Eintracht sought a late winner, while teenager Nacho was brought on for his competitive debut with ten minutes remaining. Freiburg finished strongly, however, and it looked like the visitors had snatched all three points when Adamu’s header found the bottom corner, but the 22-year-old was in an offside position from Sallai’s looping delivery. SGE line-up

Trapp – Tuta, Koch, Pacho – Buta (Knauff 65’), Skhiri, Larsson, Nkounkou (Max 80’) – Dina Ebimbe (Götze 58’), Chaibi (Nacho 80’) – Marmoush (Ngankam 65’)