Triumph in Turkey | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt beat Besiktas 3-1 in Istanbul to claim their first win of the league phase in the UEFA Europa League.

Head coach Dino Toppmöller made three alterations to his team for the first European away match of the season. In came Mo Dahoud, Mario Götze and Niels Nkounkou, with Farès Chaibi and Aurèle Amenda dropping to the bench and Tuta absent due to the impending birth of his child. Hugo Ekitiké was back on the bench after missing the trip to Holstein Kiel on Sunday.

Frenetic first half goes Eintracht’s way

At a typically noisy Besiktas Park, it was a fast-paced affair from the start. It was initially Besiktas who were the more threatening side, with Cher Ndour warming Kaua Santos’ gloves with a long-range shot (6’). Eintracht had a scare a few minutes later when Ciro Immobile went down under a challenge from Robin Koch just inside the area, but after a lengthy VAR review, it was ruled that Immobile was offside anyway.

Referee John Beaton did point to the spot at the other end in the 17th minute, after Omar Marmoush was chopped down by Paulista. The Egyptian took the penalty himself and beat goalkeeper Ersin Destanoğlu straight down the middle to notch his seventh goal of the season. It got even better for the Eagles just four minutes later. Marmoush was again involved as his free-kick was headed down by Koch into the path of the unmarked Junior Dina Ebimbe, who found the net for the second successive Europa League match.

There was no let-up in the action as Besiktas were awarded a penalty themselves in the 26th minute. Koch was penalised this time for blocking a shot with his arm, but Santos got down brilliantly to tip away Immobile’s spot-kick. That marked the start of a golden spell for the Brazilian, who made two more excellent stops from Rafa Silva and Immobile to keep the score at 2-0 at the end of the first 45 minutes.

Knauff clever, Santos finally beaten

Frankfurt, who began the second period with Chaibi on in place of Götze, showed they weren’t content to just sit back, with Igor Matanovic (47’) and Marmoush (54’) both having opportunities to extend the lead. The home side, meanwhile, continued to search for a way back into the contest but couldn’t find a way past the outstanding Santos and his back four, with Arthur Theate in particular making a number of crucial blocks.  The tempo of the game dropped slightly as the second half wore on, with both teams using up all five of their substitutions. One of those substitutes then wrapped up the three points for Eintracht: Ansgar Knauff, making his 100thcompetitive appearance for Eintracht, picked up the ball just outside the penalty area, and with the defenders backing off he found the bottom corner with a cheeky finish with the outside of the boot.

Santos made further saves from Salih Uçan (84’) and Silva (88’), and it looked like there was simply no beating the Brazilian until Arthur Masuaku caught him out at the near post in added time. That was nothing more than a consolation, however, as the visitors took their tally to four points from two games in the league phase.