Eintracht rout sends Bremen further into relegation mire
Werder extended their winless league run at the Weserstadion, where they have won only once in the league all season, to 12 matches and stayed 17th in the 18-team table with 25 points from 29 games
Eintracht Frankfurt substitute Stefan Ilsanker scored twice in 10 minutes to complete a 3-0 win away to Werder Bremen, who stayed in the Bundesliga drop zone on Wednesday as their dismal home record continued.
Forward Andre Silva headed the visitors ahead in the 61st minute of a physical, niggly match and Ilsanker took advantage of poor marking to turn in the second in the 81st, less than one minute after coming on. The Austrian also headed the third eight minutes later.
Werder extended their winless league run at the Weserstadion, where they have won only once in the league all season, to 12 matches and stayed 17th in the 18-team table with 25 points from 29 games, two adrift of Fortuna Duesseldorf. Eintracht climbed to 11th with 35 points. The hosts had the better of the first half and towering striker Davie Selke twice got through but was denied by goalkeeper Kevin Trapp the first time and then by a timely David Abraham tackle.
Werder thought they had won a penalty when Abraham handled while challenging Davy Klaassen for the ball but, after a VAR review that took nearly three minutes, officials ruled that the Bremen player was fractionally offside. Advertisement
Frankfurt took control after the break, had a goal disallowed for offside and went ahead in the next attack.
Makoto Hasebe won possession in midfield and the ball was fed to Filip Kostic whose pinpoint cross from the left was headed home by Silva - the Portugal forward’s fourth goal in the five games since the end of the coronavirus stoppage.
Ilsanker needed 19 seconds on the pitch to add the second when he was left alone at a corner and calmly sidefooted the ball in. He was again unmarked when he headed in from a free kick to complete another unhappy evening for Bremen.
Meanwhile, the Bundesliga’s health safety protocols were not breached when six Borussia Dortmund players, including England international Jadon Sancho, got their hair cut this week and took photos without face masks, the club said on Thursday.
The 20-year-old Sancho, a rising star and a top transfer target for major clubs, and his team mates got hair cuts and took photos with the hairdresser without any facial protection, which goes against the league’s health safety guidelines.
“He should not have done it,” Dortmund sports director Michael Zorc told a virtual news conference. “We were all young once, 18, 19, 20.”
“In this current special situation it is not only the coach and the coaching staff but the entire club that has to be careful with discipline.
“We have talked to all those involved and they assured us that all hygiene guidelines regarding visitors were adhered to. Only for the photo were the masks taken off. That is something that should not have happened of course.”
The Bundesliga became the first major sports league to restart on May 16 after a break of more than two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matches are played without fans and teams must adhere to strict health guidelines that regulate the process and operation of training sessions and games. The Bundesliga, with five games left in the season, plans to finish by the end of the month.
Earlier, Bayern Munich’s Germany defender
Jerome Boateng has called on more famous white sportspeople to add their voices to the chorus of outrage at the US police killing of George Floyd.
Floyd, a black American man, died after a white policeman kneeled on his neck for several minutes. His death has sparked eight days of protests in US cities, some of which have turned violent amid accusations of further police brutality used against demonstrators.
It has also seen athletes, sports teams and leagues expressing solidarity with protesters demanding an end to systemic racism and police brutality in the United States.
“Our voices carry, we have a platform and we touch many people,” Boateng, whose father is from Ghana, told Deutsche Welle radio on Thursday.
“All white sportspeople who don’t speak out are obviously not racists, but of course it is desirable that they also use their notoriety for this cause. Many do it, but I think we can do much more.” Boateng added that a deeper message needed to be sent, beyond the world of social media.