Eintracht Frankfurt moved to the top of the Bundesliga table with a 2-1 victory over Nürnberg on Friday evening. The win for Frankfurt is their fourth out of four matches this season and is nothing short of remarkable for the newly promoted side.
Nürnberg Vs. Eintracht Frankfurt, 2012 Bundesliga: Frankfurt Continue Perfect Start
Frankfurt were forced to make two early subs --- just twenty minutes into the match --- when Pirmin Schwegler and Olivier Occean were both injured. Martin Lanig and Erwin Hoffer replaced them.
Despite all of this, the visitors struck first. Takashi Inui’s corner was headed out of the penalty, but it was immediately played right back into the area by Anderson. Hoffer ran onto the ball and put his shot into the far corner beating Raphael Schäfer to make it 1-0
Pekhart had the opportunity to equalize ten minutes later, but his header was tipped over the bar by Kevin Trapp. Hiroshi Kiyotake was next to test the goalkeeper from distance, but Trapp made a good diving save to his right.
Timm Klose comes close to leveling for Nürnberg in the 56th minute, but his header from Kiyotake’s corner is cleared off the line by Sebastian Jung.
Frankfurt doubled their lead just two minutes later thanks to the brilliant Inui. The Japanese midfielder dribbled from the left side across the top of the penalty before placing his shot into the corner past Schäfer. Remarkably, Frankfurt looked to be on their way to their fourth win in four matches and a trip to the top the of the table.
Dieter Hecking, looking for more offense from his side, brought off defender Timothy Chandler for forward Sebastian Polter in the 70th minute. It didn't take long for Polter to get involved and he headed in a free kick from Kiyotake five minutes later to pull back a goal for Nürnberg.
Nürnberg came close to equalizing in the 80th minute after some fancy footwork on the endline from Timo Gebhart, but Mike Frantz’s shot with the outside of his foot went high and wide.
Polter had the best opportunity in the remaining 10 minutes, but his sliding shot went wide of the target.
Nürnberg had played well in recent weeks coming into the match, and they thought they had a good shot at taking Frankfurt down a bit from their perch. They fought back late but were unable to find that second goal to earn a point.
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