Eintracht Frankfurt were held at the Deutsche Bank Park despite dominating the game. A goal from Takuma Asano gave the visitors the lead against the run of play only for the Adler to equalise through a Randal Kolo Muani penalty.
A second goal from Oliver Glasner’s side seemed inevitable, but Eintracht simply couldn’t find the magic moment to break down their dogged opponents. Here are five takeaways from the Friday night action
1. The point suits Bochum more than Frankfurt
When the dust settles on the Friday night fixture, it will be VfL Bochum who will be more satisfied with the point than adversaries Frankfurt. The Adler needed the three points to close the gap on the teams ahead of them in the race for a Champions League berth next season and the potential advantage has now been handed to RB Leipzig, Freiburg and Union Berlin.
Bochum for their part now see themselves a full five points ahead of 16th place Hertha Berlin and can now sit back and hope that the bottom four all drop points this weekend. Bochum were seemingly dead and buried in the Hinrunde, but the point gained tonight shows there is plenty of fight left.
2. They tried it left, they tried it right
Frankfurt huffed and they puffed, but they just couldn’t blow the Bochum house down. The first half saw them attacking predominantly down the left with Philipp Max almost playing as a wide midfielder/ winger combining with Mario Götze and Randal Kolo Muani.
The second half saw the attention switching more to the right with Buta and Borré, but the killer pass was missing and Eintracht always seemed to need just one touch too many.
3. Christopher Antwi-Adjei deserves the weekend off
Bochum’s Christopher Antwi-Adjei put in one hell of a shift and more than deserves a rest following Friday’s match. His long throws were a threat and led to the opening goal, but he didn’t stop running up and down the left touchline all night. Most of his running was back towards his own goal as he was forced to track back and defend, but he didn’t shirk this responsibility and was the stand-out player for the Ruhr side.
4. Thomas Letsch can do draws
Having not had a single draw in any of his previous 18 games in charge of Bochum, trainer Thomas Letsch finally got to savour how it felt to leave the pitch with a share of the spoils. Six wins and 12 defeats in his opening matches in charge since taking over from Thomas Reis saw him avoid the stalemate- until this hard-fought (and potentially vital) point against Frankfurt.
5. The mood ‘am Main’ won’t be helped by tonight
What was needed, was a good win and morale-boosting performance from Eintracht to lift the mood. Champions League football next season is slipping away and the news that the contract offers to Daichi Kamada and Evan Ndicka have been withdrawn won’t engender a whole lot of joy. Oliver Glasner still hasn’t committed to the club and as time goes by without an upturn in fortunes, that looks increasingly unlikely.
