Marmoush to the fore as Frankfurt overcome Slavia Praha

A bitter autumnal night in the Hessen state provided the backdrop at the Deutsche-Bank Park for Eintracht Frankfurt to take on Slavia Prague, in which the hosts prevailed 1-0 thanks to a sublime Omar Marmoush freekick.

The visitors made a good impression in the opening exchanges as Christos Zafeiris’ corner found Tomas Holeš who headed over the bar. First to work the goalkeeper was Omar Marmoush as the Egyptian drew a fine save from Anton Kinsky. The young goalkeeper almost cost Slavia dearly as his misplaced pass fell to Dahoud. A sigh of relief expelled as the German’s shot sailed over. 

Dino Toppmöller cut a somewhat frustrated figure midway through the half as the Czechia club continued to threaten. The pick of the chances continued to fall the way of Die Adler as Ansgar Knauff broke through in the 32nd-minute. Kinsky arrived on cue to deny the one-on-one as Marmoush blazed wide on the rebound. There was time for a final shot on goal before the interval, but in truth a tame header from Tuta failed to give Kinsky problems. 

Frankfurt required eight second-half minutes to open the scoring and who other than Omar Marmoush is better suited to that duty this season. A central freekick just outside the 18-yard box allowed the Egyptian to curl the ball from right to left, kissing the crossbar on its way to the net with Kinsky rooted to the spot. Can Uzun’s evening came to an end on the hour as Igor Matanović got a run out. 

Ondrej Lingr replaced Lukas Provod with the final quarter to play and almost restored parity with his first touch. A set-piece nodded goalwards nestled in the midriff of Kevin Trapp. The introduction of Skhiri and Amenda replenished Toppmöller’s tiring side. Frankfurt’s captain between the posts came to the rescue again late on as he extended a left boot to redirect Jurasek’s low shot. Hugo Ekitiké could have wrapped it up late on but Kinsky would keep the deficit to one for the visitors.