Stalemate in Hamburg | OneFootball

Chances were few and far between as Eintracht Frankfurt were held to a goalless draw away to FC. St. Pauli.

Two changesHead coach Albert Riera brought in two new faces at the sold-out Millerntor-Stadion following last week’s win over SC Freiburg, with Michael Zetterer replacing Kaua Santos in goal and Farès Chaibi coming in for Mario Götze in midfield. 

It was an open, battling encounter right from the outset, and although Eintracht saw more of the ball they were unable to create any chances of note. 

The hosts’ five-man backline defended well, leaving Jean-Matteo Bahoya and Arnaud Kalimuendo little room to manoeuvre on the left and right wings respectively. St. Pauli also kept close tabs on Jonathan Burkardt, meaning that the Eagles struggled to make much headway in attack. 

Lady Luck on Eintracht’s sideThe home side carved out the better openings in the first half and the visitors were fortunate that Mathias Pereira Lage could only strike the left-hand post with a shot from inside the six-yard box (24’).

The woodwork came to Eintracht’s rescue again seven minutes later, this time the right-hand upright getting in the way of Danel Sinani’s long-range strike to keep the match goalless at the interval. Chance for BahoyaRiera’s men could have taken the lead straight away in the second half when Oscar Højlund played a fine pass from midfield to Bahoya, who fired low towards the bottom-right corner from 12 metres, only for Nikola Vasilj to make a reflex save. At the other end of the pitch, Zetterer kept out another long-distance effort from Sinani (67’).

Eintracht asserted their dominance after that but, like in the first half, laboured to fashion any clear-cut openings against the home side’s compact defence. 

Riera brought on Ritsu Doan (for Højlund, 66’), Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab (for Kalimuendo, 83’) and Love Arrhov (for Chaibi, 87’) in a bid to force a winner, but ultimately the match ended 0-0.