Borussia Mönchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt kicked off matchday 12 in the Bundesliga with a thrilling 3-3 draw. Captain Lars Stindl scored two late goals to complete a hat-trick and earn the Foals a dramatic point.
Gladbach started strongly at the Deutsche Bank Park and a neat back-heel from Marcus Thuram gave Matthias Ginter a chance to open the scoring inside a matter of minutes. It was an opportunity that would ideally fall to a striker though, as the German centre-back dragged his shot from twelve yards wide of the post. The Foals didn’t have to wait much longer for the opening goal, however. László Bénes won a free-kick 25 yards out and Lars Stindl beautifully curled it over the wall and past the outstretched Kevin Trapp (14’). Events then took an unfortunate turn, with Frankfurt not only finding a quick response, but taking a 3-1 lead before half time. A handball in the box by Stephan Lainer allowed Andre Silva to equalise from the penalty spot (21’), before the Portuguese completed a quickfire double, albeit it in controversial circumstances as the ball hadn’t come to a complete standstill for Eintracht’s quickly-taken free-kick further down the pitch (24’). Aymen Barkok then dribbled through the defence to add a third and compound Borussia’s misery (32’).
Despite changes from Marco Rose, the Foals struggled to get back on track after the break, with the hosts able to deal with the long balls to Borussia’s front three. The Eagles had chances to wrap up the game but neither Amin Younes nor Barkok could take advantage. In the 81st minute, the game took another dramatic turn though. Substitute Breel Embolo’s menacing 40-yard run had Frankfurt plays snapping at his heels and he was eventually brought down by David Abraham, earning the Argentine his second yellow card and reducing Eintracht to ten men. Borussia set out to take advantage and a 90th-minute penalty won by Embolo was stuck away by Stindl to give hope of a late comeback. Rose’s boys threw everything forward for the six minutes of added time and with just 60 seconds remaining, a cross from Ibrahima Traoré was headed on target by the captain. Trapp made an incredible save to keep him out, but Stindl refused to give up and produced an incredible leap to head home the rebound for his hat-trick and a memorable point in Frankfurt.
TEAM NEWS
Marco Rose made seven changes from the team that drew with Hertha on the weekend. Yann Sommer was back fit to replace Tobi Sippel in goal, while Stefan Lainer, Christoph Kramer, László Bénes, Marcus Thuram, Lars Stindl and Alassane Plea were all rotated into the side. Valentino Lazaro, Denis Zakaria, Ibrahima Traoré and Breel Embolo dropped to the bench, whereas a fifth yellow card meant Florian Neuhaus missed out through suspension and a muscular problem kept Patrick Herrmann out of the squad. The absentee list also included Jordan Beyer (muscular problems), Jonas Hofmann (thigh) and Ramy Bensebaini (coronavirus).
MATCH FACTS
Frankfurt: Trapp – Abraham, Hasebe, Hinteregger – Durm, Sow, Rode (90+2’ da Costa), Kostic, Barkok (90+2’ Kamada), Younes (72’ Kohr) – Silva (83’ Ilsanker)
Borussia: Sommer – Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Wendt (82’ Traoré)– Kramer, Bénes (46’ Zakaria) – Thuram, Stindl, Wolf (46’ Lazaro) – Plea (63’ Embolo)
Goals: 0-1 Stindl (14’), 1-1 Silva (22’, pen.), 2-1 Silva (24’), 3-1 Barkok (32’), 3-2 Stindl (90’), 3-3 Stindl (90+5’)
Yellow cards: Hasebe, Abraham, Kohr, Rode, Barkok – Zakaria, Embolo
Red cards: Abraham (81’)
Referee: Benjamin Cortus (Röthenbach)
Attendance: 0
