Great day ends with hard-fought win | OneFootball

Goals from Chaibi (45’) and Knauff (78’) gave Frankfurt a 2-1 (1-0) win over Juárez, with the home fans providing a great atmosphere.

The fans in the Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez created an incredible atmosphere at a match which, as expected, saw Eintracht well and truly put to the test. The Eagles were nevertheless in control of the game for long periods and carved out the majority of the chances.

Eintracht with the better chances

The Eagles opted for a 4-3-3 formation, featuring three players who were either new signings or returning from loan in Nathaniel Brown, Igor Matanovic and Can Uzun. Right-winger Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe was the focus of much of the early attacking play, and after 10 minutes, Mario Götze – given the captain’s armband for the day – fed the French forward, and he continued his run down the flank before just failing to find striker Matanovic with a cross (11’). Moments later, Matanovic teed up Farès Chaibi, but the Algerian could not quite keep his shot down (12’). Dina Ebimbe then came close with a similar chance, this one on his left foot (25’).

Just as it was looking as if the first half would finish goalless, the Eagles pushed forward again on a quick break and Brown was brought down in the box, leaving referee Maximiliano Quintero Hernández no choice but to point to the spot. Chaibi found the bottom left-hand corner and gave the visitors a 1-0 lead on the stroke of half-time (45’).

Knauff gets the winner

Los Bravos came out of the traps better in the second half and were good value for their equaliser when Cesar Lopez headed past Kevin Trapp (52’). Omar Marmoush was then unlucky in the 76th minute when he saw his shot cannon off the bar.

Ansgar Knauff had more luck two minutes later, scoring what would end up being the winning goal. Frankfurt had looked a little shaky after the break and conceded a handful of chances – one of which had led to the equaliser – but they wrested control back in the final quarter-of-an-hour and deserved their win. The final whistle came to confirm Frankfurt’s 2-1 victory, and the Eagles then went on a number of laps of honour around the pitch – something that a visiting team rarely gets to enjoy. Handing out jerseys to opposing fans was also another novel feature of what was a genuine celebration of football at the Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez.

Dino Toppmöller: “We’ve trained hard and intensively and we really wanted to win. The lads did well. We had more control and a lot of shots in the first half. I’m pleased with a lot of our attacking play. The final ball was missing on one or two occasions – we’ll keep working on that. I liked how much the lads wanted to win the game. Everyone’s pulling their weight incredibly well in training. We still need to work on one or two things, including our pressing game.”