One week after being humiliated 6-0 in Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt have found a way back. On Friday night at the Deutsche Bank Park, Younes Ebnoutalib scored the only goal against 1. FC Köln in the 77th minute, giving coach Adi Hütter his first home win of the Bundesliga season and his side’s first clean sheet of the campaign.
Hütter reacted to the Leipzig debacle by bringing in Mario Götze, Fares Chaibi and Ebnoutalib. Captain Robin Koch, criticised after last week, kept his place. The opening was nervy all the same: inside the first minute Marius Bülter got clear of the Frankfurt defence and only goalkeeper Noah Atubolu, playing his 100th Bundesliga game, kept him out. Atubolu had to produce another fine reflex save from a Bülter flick around the half-hour mark.
Frankfurt controlled more of the ball but created little before the break, with Chaibi twice denied from a tight angle by Cologne keeper Marvin Schwäbe. After half-time the hosts pinned their visitors back and sent cross after cross into the box. Schwäbe kept stopping headers from Lilian Brassier and Chaibi until a moment of real quality settled it. Substitute Noel Aseko took a pass from Ebnoutalib, dragged the ball with his sole and slipped it through Luka Lochoshvili’s legs, and Ebnoutalib finished low into the near corner.
The figures backed up the result: Frankfurt had eleven shots to Cologne’s two in the second half and an expected-goals value of 1.68 against 0.49. “It was a difficult week,” the match-winner admitted afterwards.
The win takes Frankfurt to eight points from six games and past Cologne in the table, while the visitors are still waiting for an away league win after more than a year. Next Saturday Frankfurt visit Borussia Dortmund, and Köln host Schalke.
