1. FSV Mainz 05 – Eintracht Frankfurt 1: 1: SGE only gets a draw in the derby

No victory, but a lot of satisfaction: Eintracht Frankfurt ended a sensational football year in 2022 with a 1-1 draw in Mainz.

Mario Götze got a reward slap on the butt from coach Oliver Glasner, the fans of Eintracht Frankfurt celebrated their “Kings of Europe” with a big banner and plenty of pyrotechnics for a great football year 2022 – even if it ended without a win remained: Thanks to a stroke of genius by World Cup driver Götze, Eintracht still managed to win 1-1 (0-1) in the derby at Mainz 05 and overwintered in the Bundesliga on a European Cup spot.

“It was the best year that Eintracht has had in a very long time, so it’s nice that it didn’t get lost today,” said national goalkeeper Kevin Trapp on DAZN.

Randal Kolo Muani (67th) saved the Europa League winner at least one point after a spectacular Götze pass after Jonathan Burkardt (40th) had put Mainz in the lead for a long time. Nevertheless, the Hessians missed the eighth success from the past nine competitive games, Götze acted a little more inconspicuously than last.

“It was like always in Mainz. An aggressive opponent who didn’t leave an inch of space,” said Eintracht captain Sebastian Rode and said with a view to the past few months: “It’s excellent what we’ve done. The development from the first matchday , where we got on the cap until today. Round of 16 in the Champions League, the place in the Bundesliga – that couldn’t be better.”

Burkardt scores for Mainz, Kolo Muani equalizes

Trapp saw it differently: “We’re not finished yet, we have a lot of potential in the team. But first we have to let everything that happened sink in.” It will be difficult for the keeper and Götze – the World Cup weeks are waiting for both of them.

In a wild initial phase in front of 33,305 fans, the Frankfurters initially came under massive defensive pressure. Only after the Mainz chances from Burkardt and Dominik Kohr (9th) did the Europa League winner calm things down a bit – also thanks to clever actions by Götze.

Coach Bo Svensson’s FSV, with four changes compared to the weak performance at Schalke (0:1), immediately followed suit. “We threw everything in. After the crappy game on Wednesday it was something completely different,” said Burkardt.

Defensively, Eintracht did not appear secure against the strong Mainz team, and despite some good approaches, there were no clear shots going forward. As a result, Götze also disappeared a bit.

A lot of things in the FSV game went too fast for the Hessians. Burkardt only punished Frankfurt shortly before the break when he scored a deserved lead from the crowd. Trapp had made two sensational saves immediately beforehand.

Frankfurt fought their way back into the game after the break while Svensson’s team dwindled. Junior Dina Ebimbe (65th) missed the great opportunity to equalize, but after Götze’s flash of inspiration Kolo Muani remained ice cold in front of the goal. Shortly thereafter, Götze (74th) missed the next Frankfurt goal from around 40 meters.

1. FSV Mainz 05 – Eintracht Frankfurt: The data of the game

Mainz: Zentner – Fernandes, Hack, Bell – Widmer (67th da Costa), Kohr, Martin (84th Caci) – Stach (84th Lee), Barreiro – Onisiwo (84th Ingvartsen), Burkardt (73rd Barkok).

Frankfurt: Trapp – Tuta, Jakic (Smolcic 46), Ndicka – Dina Ebimbe, Sow, Kamada, Knauff (Pellegrini 59) – Götze, Lindstrom (Rode 59, Alario 90) – Kolo Muani.

Gates: 1-0 Burkardt (40′), 1-1 Kolo Muani (67′)

Yellow cards: Bell (5), Martin-Tuta (3), Kolo Muani