Herr Mike in Deutschland

FCN, back again! Friday's televised game saw Nuremberg host Frankfurt in a dress rehearsal for next month's cup semi-final. Sitting low in the league Frankfurt are a team that Der Club should beat with relative ease. Football is never straightforeward like that of course and Eintracht were the first to score, Greek international Kyrgiakos heading in a corner on 26 minutes.

It was a relief when the ref blew for half time, bringing to a close the worst 45 minutes of football I have ever seen FCN play. It was frankly shambolic, no momentum, no movement and no threat whatsoever. Ian's sunday league team would have made them look average.

And the second half started brightly with a Nuremburg flurry, though this left it open at the back and Frankfurt punished them with a counter, Japanese striker Takahara scoring to give the visitors a 2 goal cushion. At 2-0 FCN looked deservedly down and out. But with the fans in the Nordkurve (Nuremberg's equivalent of the Kop) still in full voice with chants of 'Kampfen und Siegen' (Fight and Win) the home team picked it up a notch and began to play.

With 9 minutes left some good work on the left saw the ball fizz into the Frankfurt box. Robert Vittek pounced on the cross but it shot came back off the keeper though fortutiously hit Frankfurt defender Spycher in the face and landed in his own net. The stadium erupted and Der Club sensed they were back in the game.

Then came the equaliser, a through ball to striker Vittek slicing the Frankfurt defence in two. A drop of the shoulder and calm finish ensured the point for Nuremberg in a valiant comeback which could have gone either way.

Labels: FCN