Home defeat to Frankfurt

Hertha BSC lost their Saturday afternoon clash with Eintracht Frankfurt 4-1. Krzysztof Piatek put the home side in front but it wasn’t enough as Dedryck Boyata was sent off.

Formation

Bruno Labbadia made three changes to the side that lost to Borussia Dortmund last weekend. Krzysztof Piatek came into the starting XI for the injured Javairo Dilrosun, with Arne Maier and Marvin Plattenhardt came in for Maximilian Mittelstädt and Dodi Lukebakio. Mittelstädt is now out for the season after tests revealed the left midfielder has contracted glandular fever. Matheus Cunha, however, returned to the squad on the bench. Adi Hütter made seven changes from his side that lost to Bayern Munich in the week.

Match Analysis

It was a scrappy start to the game at the Olympiastadion as both sides fought to get a foothold in the game. The visitors had a couple of half chances early through Danny da Costa and Filip Kostic but there was no real danger to Rune Jarstein’s goal. The home side then had a big chance from a set-piece as Dedryck Boyata found Vedad Ibisevic with a header but the Bosnian’s effort flew over the bar, although he was later revealed to be offside (22’). Piatek then stepped up, though, and scrambled the ball past three players before slotting home the opener for Hertha (24’), grabbing his fourth goal of the season in the process. It was then bad news for the home side as Per Skjelbred had to leave the field due to injury - he was replaced by Lazar Samardzic (33’). Rune Jarstein was then called into action to save a certain goal from Daichi Kamada (41’). But then the half took an eventful turn, as Dedryck Boyata made contact with Bas Dost outside the box, earning himself a straight red card. The referee had at first awarded a penalty, but after consultation with VAR, decided the contact was outside the box. Kostic couldn’t make us of the free kick and so the two teams went in at half time with Hertha up by a goal, but down by a man.

Labbadia reacted to the events at half time, bringing on Niklas Stark for Ibisevic (46’). However, the equaliser from Frankfurt could not be stopped as Dost himself scrambled the ball past Jarstein (51’). Samardzic and Maier were brought off shortly after this, with Alexander Esswein and Lukas Klünter coming onto the pitch (55’). The cold shower only continued after that though as Kamada dribbled through the Hertha defence and squared to Andre Silva who backheeled Frankfurt into the lead (62’).Just seven minutes later, Evan N’Dicka smashed home a third past a helpless Jarstein (69’). The Herthaner remained positive though: Matheus Cunha came on for Piatek and the team continued to push forward (75’). Unfortunately though, they couldn’t turn this into a goal and Andre Silva sealed the deal for Frankfurt in the final minutes, making it an emphatic 4-1 victory for the visitors.

Conclusion and Outlook

The defeat to Frankfurt spelled the second in a row for the Herthaner - the first at home under Labbadia, which has left them in 10th place. The fixtures continue to come thick and fast for Hertha though as they take on Freiburg on Tuesday. Kick off in the Schwarzwald Stadion is at 20:30 CEST.