Narrow defeat at Barça | OneFootball

Despite putting up a brave fight and leading at half-time through Ansgar Knauff, Eintracht Frankfurt lost 2-1 in Barcelona following a Jules Koundé double early in the second half.

Four changesHead coach Dino Toppmöller made four changes to his line-up at the Camp Nou. While Michy Batshuayi was ruled out due to injury, Mo Dahoud, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya and Nnamdi Collins found themselves on the bench, with Mario Götze, Hugo Larsson, Ansgar Knauff and Ellyes Skhiri promoted to the starting XI.

Zetterer put to work earlyBarcelona took charge of the match from the off and had their first big chance of the match in the 14th minute. Gerard Martin let fly with a dangerous shot from almost 25 yards, but Michael Zetterer pulled off a fantastic save to tip the ball over the bar.  

Knauff opens the scoringAfter 21 minutes, Eintracht pulled off the perfect counter-attack. Nathaniel Brown threaded the ball through to Knauff, who raced into the penalty area and picked his spot perfectly, side-footing the ball into the bottom right-hand corner from 12 yards out to give the Eagles the lead. Barca press, Eintracht resistThis spurred Barcelona on and they ramped up the pressure in search of an equaliser. Toppmöller’s side remained compact in defence, however, showing aggression in the one-on-ones and blocking any chances that came the Catalans’ way. That team spirit enabled Eintracht to take a narrow lead into the break. 

The first chance of the second period went Frankfurt’s way, with Farès Chaibi trying his luck from distance, but Joan Garcia was equal to it. 

Koundé turns the match on its head

Within the next few minutes however, Eintracht’s backline was twice found wanting and Barcelona made no mistake on either occasion. Crosses from the left in the 50th and 53rd minutes made their way through to Jules Koundé, who lost his marker both times and headed home, turning the match on its head.

The match then became much more open than it had been in the first half, due in no small part to Eintracht having to push forward. This obviously gave Barça space to exploit on the fast break. The home side had chances aplenty, with Marcus Rashford seeing his effort well blocked by Arthur Theate (59’), and Raphinha having a speculative effort denied by Zetterer (62’). Substitute Ferran Torres had the opportunity to seal the three points, but his shot from a tight angle fizzed past the goal (69’). 

Coach Toppmöller brought on fresh legs up front in the form of Bahoya, Can Uzun and Elye Wahi, but Barça’s effective press meant that chances were few and far between. Thus it was that despite battling hard for the full 90 minutes, Frankfurt came away from the Camp Nou on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline.