Eintracht Frankfurt – Borussia Dortmund: What Happens When Neither Team Are Scared To Attack In Numbers (3-3)

In a spectacular and open match where both teams dared to attack with numbers, both teams left with one point. On the whole, it was probably Dortmund who left the happier of the two teams, having come from behind twice.
Tactical analysis and match report written by Jake. 

Both Frankfurt and Dortmund met, following successful midweek encounter’s against European competition. After a 6-0 win, Frankfurt would fancy themselves to get a goal or two. After another clean sheet midweek, scoring against Dortmund was far from guaranteed.

A win would see Dortmund temporarily rise to joint top of the table, anything short of a 19 goal advantage though, and they would have to settle for second place. Even with an almost impossible scoreline, they would still be at the mercy of Leverkusen who played the late kick off. A win for Frankfurt would not improve their league position of seventh, however it would in all likelihood, stop them dropping to eighth.

Frankfurt made six changes to their line-up after their 6-0 win three days before; Jens Grahl, Hrvoje Smolčić, Ansgar Knauff, Junior Ebimbe, Niels Nkounkou and Mario Götze replaced by Kevin Trapp, William Pacho, Aurélio Buta, Hugo Larsson and Phillipp Max. As he has done all season, manager Dino Toppmöller opted for a formation of 3-4-3 / 3-4-2-1, as he has done all season.

Dortmund too remained a consistent shape to their midweek game with a 4-2-3-1 formation Salih Özcan replacing an injured Emre Can and Gio Reyna playing instead of Félix Nmecha.

Trading punches
Despite Dortmund's last two results being narrow, one-nil victories, it is certainly not a byproduct of passive or defensive football. Certainly considering their . . .