Late hammer blow | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt slipped to a 2-1 defeat away to 1. FSV Mainz 05, with the winner coming in the 89th minute after Nathaniel Brown had levelled.

Two changesHead coach Albert Riera made two changes to his starting line-up for the meeting in Mainz. Jonathan Burkardt was preferred to Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab in attack, while Arthur Theate replaced the suspended Robin Koch in defence and as captain.Behind earlyA long ball from Sheraldo Becker in the sixth minute caught the Frankfurt defence cold, allowing Paul Nebel to shoot from nine metres. Theate attempted to block the strike but unfortunately deflected it past the helpless Michael Zetterer. 

Brown repliesThe Eagles provided the perfect response to going behind after 20 minutes. Jean-Matteo Bahoya got the better of ex-Eagle Danny da Costa on the left side and played a perfect square ball into the penalty area, where Nathaniel Brown arrived to side-foot it into the bottom right corner.Zetterer denies BeckerThe next real opportunity didn’t arrive until the 37th minute following a quick counter from the hosts. Nebel laid the ball off to Becker, whose shot was well saved at close range by Zetterer. At the other end, Theate sent a header into the arms of Daniel Batz from a corner, leaving the score at 1-1 at half-time after a close-fought 45 minutes. 

Woodwork struck twiceEintracht had the majority of the possession at the start of the second half and had a big chance to take the lead in the 61st minute. Ritsu Doan’s cross from the right found Farès Chaibi five metres from goal, but his header crashed against the crossbar. 

The Eagles continued to push for a goal and struck the woodwork again on 70 minutes, when Doan’s effort from the edge of the box was tipped onto the post by Batz. 

Late shockHowever, it was Mainz who found a winner in the 89th minute. Zetterer initially saved Nelson Weiper’s header but Nebel was in the right place to fire in the rebound from close range.