Bundesliga Player Ratings | Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt share spoils in 3-3 draw | OneFootball

Just as they did in the thrilling Bundesliga 2026 restart match precisely one week ago, Eintracht Frankfurt have drawn a Bundesliga Friday night fixture 3-3. This time, Dino Toppmöller’s Eintracht were the ones who snatched a dramatic late equalizer against a largely superior Werder Bremen side. There’s quite a bit to unpack in our latest Get German Football News player ratings piece.

Storylines abound as we’ll take a look at an Eintracht side who have conceded three goals in all three of their 2026 Bundesliga games, not to mention a Bremen team who – after going four Bundesliga games without scoring a goal – suddenly woke up to score three. Unlike in last night’s GGFN match review piece, we’ll defer the tactical review section until later.

The match recap:

Eintracht get off to a dream start

The SGE administrative team were made to look like absolute geniuses for acquiring Nottingham Forest striker Arnaud Kalimuendo on loan before one minute had been played. The EPL loanee supplied an amazing finish 51 seconds in, poking in a first-time-finish with the outside of his boot from about five meters out on the left. The manner in which the goal was constructed was also impressive. Ritsu Doan latched onto a long free kick from Arthur Theate. Nathaniel Brown then headed a gorgeous arcing cross from Ritsu Doan on the right in Kalimuendo’s direction. The Frenchman made the 1-0 look deceptively easy with his clever poke.

The Hessen-guests were able to parlay the early momentum just a tad, with Kalimuendo once again breaking into the box in the 6th-minute. This time, however, rising young German defensive talent Karim Coulibaly was on hand to supply the solid defending every last Bremen defender lacked on the opening goal. What early forward impulse Frankfurt had then came to a screeching halt when SGE defender Rasmus Kristensen took a boot to the face from Romano Schmid. Kristensen, bleeding profusely from his nose, required extensive treatment on the sideline.

In what may have been a deliberate effort to buy some time for Kristensen to check back into the match, recently reinstated Frankfurt keeper Kaua Santos also plopped down and called for treatment. The two breaks impeded the flow of the match and Eintracht continued to play a man down until Kristensen returned in the 18th minute. Werder were unable to establish much of a rhythm despite plenty of possession. Toppmöller’s crew – contrary to their reputation as a very poor defensive side – also kept things disciplined during their time at a numerical disadvantage.

Bremen slowly punch back

Justin Njinmah fired the first warning shot for the Hanseatic hosts in the 20th minute. Some sloppy Eintracht passing enabled Werder midfielder Jens Stage to spring Njinmah on a quick counter. The young German speedster had his markers beat and sent a well-struck effort from 18 meters out just whizzing past the left post. Bremen managed to adequately absorb some light Frankfurt pressure over the course of the next nine minutes until Njinmah scored on a play that resembled his earlier near miss.

This time, Bremen wisely took their time on an attack charge. Schmid and Yukinari Sugawara played a lovely one-two before the latter send Njinmah in again in the 29th-minute. Njinmah cleanly and calmly polished off the 1-1 from 17 meters out this time. While one wishes to take nothing away from the finish, SGE defender Nnamdi Collins’ marking left much to be desired. Njinmah then missed out on a chance to give his side the lead in the 31st when he failed to connect with a Coulibaly cross.

Frankfurt take the lead out of nowhere

In all candor, not a great deal worth mentioning happened for the duration of the first half. Uneventful football from both sides spilled over well after the restart as well. The opening 45 wrapped up in a rather choppy fashion. A few dead ball opportunities for the hosts allowed Steffen to show off some interesting variations from his set-piece playbook. Bremen’s creatively constructed variants nevertheless produced no notable scoring opportunities. More problems with Kristensen’s opening wound again hindered match rhythm as soon as the second half kicked off.

A seemingly meaningless duel win from Collins in the 56th minute led to the 1-2. Collins beat Schmidt as Bremen tried to play out of the back. The ball found its way back to Collins via Kalimuendo and Chaïbi and the oft criticized German national team defender more than atoned for his earlier mistake with an exceptional drop kick finish past Werder keeper Mio Backhaus. Chaïbi – who recorded his seventh Bundesliga assist of the season on the goal – also did a marvelous job setting Collins up.

Bremen keep trying to spring Njinmah

As the hosts fought in search of an equalizer, the solution appeared just a bit too predictable. Marco Grüll attempted to play Njinmah in with another through ball in the 59th-minute, but Theate was alert to the danger. Four minutes later, Njinmah got a chance off an Eintracht turnover. The 25-year-old regrettably couldn’t sort his body positioning out and shanked his 63rd-minute finish. Another Grüll-Njinmah combo in the 68th-minute produced another wide finish.

Bremen continued to dominate possession and a very unfair overall outcome nearly transpired in the 76th-minute. After literally producing almost nothing offensively since the opening minute, Eintracht had a chance to effectively put the game to bed when SGE sub Can Uzun sent Chaïbi through on a quick counter. The Algerian simply couldn’t replicate the elegance of his earlier assist. Chaïbi missed a close range sitter with a wide shot in front of a beaten Mio Backhaus.

Bremen score in quick succession

Only two minutes after Chaïbi failed to seal the deal, Bremen were able to claw back a well-deserved equalizer in the 78th-minute. Interestingly enough, it came off a bare-bones set-piece design. Jens Stage headed home a simple (possibly blind) free-kick cross from SVW sub Samuel Mbangula to level the scoreline. Parity lasted all two minutes. A top-notch team goal from the Hanseatic hosts put them ahead.

Backhaus (who had hitherto had a shaky match) kick-started a quick attack charge in the 80th. Mbangula then set up Schmid dead center. Instead of shooting, Schmid contorted himself in an astounding fashion in order to turn around and set up onrushing Bremen sub Jovan Milosevic. The newly acquired Stuttgart loanee didn’t need to do much to easily smash in the 3-2 from just outside the 18. Kaua Santos, rushing to meet Schmid, left the net open.

Knauff and Amaimouni-Echghouyab to the rescue

Mbangula in particular appeared particularly buoyed by the Bremen lead. The Belgian kept active with more long dribbles. It appeared totally unlikely that Frankfurt would equalize against the run-of-play. Werder produced more forward play until, deep into injury time, SGE subs Ansgar Knauff and Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab combined for the 3-3 at 90+4.

Amaimouni-Echghouyab scraped a cutback off the goal-line back to Knauff. The original ruling on the pitch held that Amaimouni-Echghouyab failed to prevent the ball from going out into touch. A VAR review led to match official Benjamin Brand ultimately reversing his decision. The 3-3 was allowed to stand.

Incredibly, Amaimouni-Echghouyab has now gotten his name on the scoresheet in both his brief Eintracht substitute appearances. The new January signing from the 3. Liga has made an incredible jump to the German top flight.

Werder Bremen Player Ratings

Mio Backhaus (5) –  Karim Coulibaly (6), Marco Friedl (6), Amos Pieper (5),  – Isaac Schmidt (4), Senne Lynen (5)Yukinari Sugawara (8), Jens Stage (8), Romano Schmid (8) – Marco Grüll (5), Justin Njinmah (6)

Substitutes: Jovan Milosevic (8), Samuel Mbangula (7), Keke Topp (-), 

Eintracht Frankfurt Player Ratings

Kaua Santos (5) – Arthur Theate (6), Robin Koch (5), Nnamdi Collins (7) – Nathaniel Brown (6),  Mahmoud Dahoud (4), Ellyes Skhiri (4), Rasmus Kristensen (6) – Fares Chaïbi (6), Ritsu Doan  (6)  –  Arnaud Kalimuendo (6)

Substitutes:  Ansgar Knauff (8), Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab  (8), Can Uzun (7), Oscar Højlund (-)

GGFN Player of the Match: Romano Schmid (8)

Whew! This one happens to be exceedingly tough as there were many strong Bremen performances. One could even be tempted to say that, on the Eintracht side, Amaimouni-Echghouyab made a cases for himself. One generally can’t accord the honor to subs, however, unless the entire match prove fully rotten. This excludes both Eintracht’s Amaimouni-Echghouyab and Werder’s Samuel Mbangula. 

Schmid narrowly edges out Jens Stage and Yukinari Sugawara mostly based on the quality of his assist on Milosevic’s goal. Stage played the more well-rounded match, but his set-piece finish wasn’t particularly memorable. Sugawara – as he has been all season – was the most courageous and active of all the Bremen professionals on the pitch, but did make that early defensive error and had a few other duel lapses. 

Schmid proved the savior of this team once again. The Austrian assisted on a total of three shots on the night, accrued an incredible 84 touches, went on 22 sprints, and six long dribbles. Some notable duel losses simply have to be brushed aside. Schmid almost deserves to be this team’s permanently-anointed hero for remaining with Bremen even though he could have moved to the Premier League this summer.

Honestly. Where would Bremen be without his two league goals and five assists?

In the relegation race. 

Schmid and Stage more than make up for the fact that this team can’t ever seem to sign a decent striker…

….or even get their loan quotas figured out.

GGFN | Peter Weis