GLAD TO BE BACH WINNING
Eintracht Frankfurt 1 Borussia Monchengladbach 3
ALASSANE PLEA found it was good to be Bach – he needed just 37 seconds to pile the pressure on the Bundesliga’s pacesetters.
The French striker flew out of the blocks, following a 66-day lockdown lay-off, as the Foals found their feet in double-quick time.
Plea bagged his ninth of the campaign as shocking Frankfurt defending gave the visitors the perfect springboard from which they leaped over RB Leipzig and into third.
More slack work gave Marco Rose’s men another glorious opportunity to stretch their lead as Marcus Thuram tapped in a second within the opening seven minutes.
This settled down the visitors, who moved to within three points of leaders Bayern Munich with a slick show that should have resulted in a heavier win against lacklustre hosts. The lack of a crowd undoubtedly hampered Frankfurt who have one of the best home records.
This would undoubtedly have been viewed as a difficult task with a full house at the Commerzbank-arena – but it ended up comfortable for Rose’s charges.
The last thing home chief Adi Hutter wanted was a slow start.
But the Eagles started sluggishly and Breel Embolo’s hopeful ball over the top was won by Plea (above), who fed it to team-mate Jonas Hofmann. He received a pass back and was able to fire a low shot into the net across Eintracht keeper Kevin Trapp.
And it did not take long for the second to arrive. Nico Elvedi’s raking 50-yard crossfield pass was collected on the left by Ramy Bensebaini. The Algerian twisted this way and that before slipping the ball into the path of Thuram who couldn’t fail to score.
Frankfurt struggled to gain any foothold in the game and it is unlikely even if Filip Kostic’s fierce free-kick had found a way past Yann Sommer midway through the first-half that the flaky home rearguard would have been able to keep out their opponents.
As it was, Plea crashed a shot against the upright after the break before home defender Even N’dicka shoved Thuram in the back as he chased a ball into the area 18 minutes from time and Bensebaini slotted home the resulting penalty.
Frankfurt finally found a way through 10 minutes from time, but substitute Andre Silva’s neat finish came too late to make any difference.