Draw in a great atmosphere | OneFootball

In front of a crowd of 11,239 spectators at the Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Eintracht Frankfurt and Aston Villa FC drew 2–2, with Elye Wahi and Ebu Bekir Is on target for the Eagles.

The first friendly of the ADIDAS U.S. TOUR was a high-profile one as the Eagles took on English side Aston Villa, who reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League last season.

Aside from a few brief forays into the penalty areas, goalmouth action was initially few and far between at the Lynn Family Stadium. Nevertheless, the first clear-cut chance of the game also brought the opening goal, as former Borussia Dortmund attacker Donyell Malen collected a long ball forward and laid it off for Ollie Watkins to finish from the edge of the six-yard box (11’).

Watkins could have doubled his side’s lead just seven minutes later, but failed to put the ball in the unguarded net after getting the better of both Aurèle Amenda and Kevin Trapp. Elye Wahi showed him how it was done in the 20th minute with a clinical finish past goalkeeper Marco Bizot following neat build-up play from Robin Koch.

Buoyed by that equaliser, the Eagles continued to apply pressure, pressing high and aggressively despite their exertions in intensive training sessions in high temperatures over the last few days. Their efforts created a number of opportunities, the best of which fell to Wahi, who fired narrowly wide (30’).

Eintracht made several substitutions at the start of the second half and they were soon caught cold by Morgan Rogers, who put Villa 2-1 up in the 47th minute. Eintracht battled well as they sought to level matters once more, but had to wait until the 75th minute for their next sight of goal when Farès Chaibi blazed over following good work by Michy Batshuayi.

The game began to fizzle out somewhat but Eagles fans at the Lynn Family Stadium still ended up celebrating in the closing stages when Ebu Bekir Is’ shot squeezed past goalkeeper Joe Gauci (82’).

Eintracht’s next game is on Tuesday 29 July against Louisville City FC. Kick-off at the Lynn Family Stadium is at 19:30 local time (01:30 CEST on 30 July), with the match set to be broadcast live on EintrachtTV+.