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Bremen (dpa) - The proud success series from Eintracht Frankfurt is history.
After eleven Bundesliga games without a defeat, the Champions League candidate lost 2-1 (1-0) at Werder Bremen for the first time this year on Friday evening.
All three goals in this game were a topic of conversation.
The early Frankfurt 1-0 by André Silva shouldn't have fallen in the 9th minute, as there was an unjustified corner kick for the Hessians before the 19th goal of the season by the Portuguese.
Both the 1: 1 by Theodor Gebre Selassie (47th) and the 2: 1 by Joshua Sargent (62nd) then called the video assistant on the scene.
With the first hit, he corrected a wrong offside decision by the referee team.
To be on the safe side, he checked the winning goal again.
In addition, two more goals from Bremen were not given due to offside positions.
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The bottom line was that Eintracht had to attribute this setback to itself after a strong start.
Bremen, on the other hand, gave a convincing answer to the 4-0 debacle in Hoffenheim.
Less than five years after their relegation battle final, both teams met this time under completely different circumstances.
While Eintracht and Werder were still competitors against relegation in 2016, a Champions League candidate now competed in the Weserstadion - and appeared accordingly self-confident.
Less than ten minutes were played when Silva took the lead.
The 25-year-old Portuguese was last absent from the 2-1 win against Bayern Munich due to back problems.
Amin Younes played a corner, but after studying the TV pictures it seemed to be unjustified, briefly on Filip Kostic, whose cross Silva headed into the far corner.
For the goal scorer, Real Madrid loan Luka Jovic had to sit back on the bench.
The 37-year-old Makoto Hasebe moved from the central midfield to the middle of the defense.
The defense of the Hessians initially allowed little.
When the ball landed in the Frankfurt goal after just under half an hour, referee Robert Hartmann correctly did not give the goal because of offside.
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The Eintracht initially appeared in combination, let the ball and Werder run.
"I'm very excited about today and I'm sure we'll show a reaction," Werder coach Florian Kohfeldt said immediately before the game at DAZN and announced "lust for battle".
His team then showed this more and more after the cautious first 20 minutes.
Milot Rashica had two good chances (26th / 28th) - and a little later an even better one when he profited from a mistake by Hasebe and failed with his soulful shot against the crossbar (34th).
Werder's strategy of closing the center and using Rashica's pace worked better and better as the playing time increased.
On the last day of the 2015/16 season, Bremen and Frankfurt met in a direct duel.
Werder won 1-0 with a goal in the 88th minute and saved themselves from relegation.
The Frankfurt team had to go into relegation and only prevailed against 1. FC Nürnberg with a lot of effort.
Since then, the development has diverged - but on Friday evening Werder approached their opponents more and more after the cautious initial phase.
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"More courage" demanded Bremen's licensed player manager Clemens Fritz in his half-time analysis.
Immediately after the change, the deserved compensation fell.
After a fine pass from Rashica, Gebre Selassie overcame Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp - and after video evidence, the hit was recognized.
Just like the Sergents Gate a little later, which was also checked and held.
Eintracht coach Adi Hütter reacted in the 65th minute with a three-man change and brought in Jovic, Ajdin Hrustic and Aymen Barkok.
Again a goal fell for Werder, but this time the inspection from the Cologne basement showed: no goal.
The Frankfurters braced themselves against the defeat and pushed for an equalization - in the end in vain.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210226-99-613371 / 2
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