Frankfurt comeback sees off United

leedsunited.com 21/7/15
UNITED 1 (Morison 26), FRANKFURT 2 (Flum 59, Reinartz 74)
United team: Silvestri (Turnbull 77), Wootton, Cooper, Bamba (Bellusci 77), Berardi, Bianchi (Adeyemi 56), Cook (Phillips 71), Mowatt (Taylor 63), Byram (Erwin 77), Sloth (Antenucci 56), Morison (Doukara 71). Subs. Coyle, Walters, Horton.
Frankfurt team: Lindner, Oczipka, Reinartz, Inui, Seferovic, Aigner, Flum, Abraham, Hasebe, Stendera, Castaignos. Subs. Balayev, Becker, Kadlec, Djakpa, Waldschmidt, Medojevic, Ignovski, Kinsombi, Gerezgiher, Bunjaki.
After touching base in Austria on Saturday afternoon, United’s pre-season tour kicked-off with a friendly against Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt in the intimate surroundings of Eugendorf’s Sportzentrum.
It was the Germans who began the brightest in front of a partisan United following, with Marco Silvestri sprawling low to his left to hold Tokashi Inui’s effort, while Hans Seferovic skied a back-post volley into the fields behind the goal.
Silvestri then denied Stefan Aigner with his legs after the striker was found lurking inside the area, before the closest attempt of the opening exchanges saw Inui ping the crossbar after cutting inside from the left.
But – somewhat against the run of play – it was United who opened the scoring on 26 minutes following a swift break up-field. Sam Byram strode down the right and delivered a low cross into the area, where Steve Morison muscled his way onto the ball before firing emphatically beyond Heinz Lindner.
Frankfurt looked to respond but they found the United defence in inspired form as Inui's strike was pushed away by Silvestri before Seferovic saw the rebound blocked on the line by the sliding Liam Cooper from point-blank range. The striker then clipped the post with his third attempt as manager Armin Veh looked on in bemusement.
It was United who were ending the half the strongest of the two sides, and Byram continued to cause problems down Frankfurt's left with his energetic bursts into space. Sights of goal remained scarce, though, and Uwe Rosler's men took their 1-0 lead into the break.
United returned for the second period unchanged but Casper Sloth was being utilised in a more central role behind Morison as Alex Mowatt switched out to the left.
Frankfurt could have equalised within just four minutes of the restart as Seferovic rounded Silvestri after being slotted through on goal, only to see his effort hit the side-netting from a tight angle.
At the opposite end, Lewis Cook was smothered by Lindner’s low save after being played in by Byram, before Rosler made his first changes of the evening, introducing Tom Adeyemi and Mirco Antenucci in place of Tommaso Bianchi and Sloth respectively.
Frankfurt managed to pull themselves level on 59 minutes through Johannes Flum, meeting Stefan Aigner’s header across goal with an outstretched leg to guide the ball beyond Silvestri at the back post.
And their second goal came 15 minutes later as the Bundesliga side went ahead somewhat fortuitously. A goalmouth scramble saw Cooper block Stefan Reinartz’s attempt on the line, before the Frankfurt midfielder was able to scramble in the rebound via the back of the unassuming Scott Wootton.

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