Gladbach and Frankfurt play out tense draw | OneFootball

In a match testing the credentials of two European hopefuls, Borussia Park had the ‘big game feeling’ about it ahead of Saturday's Toppspiel, and the tempo of the encounter matched this perfectly.

The first real effort of the match came in the sixth minute, after some fantastic work from Mario Götze on the left-hand side, the ball fell to Ellyes Skhiri who let fly from 25 yards out. The Tunisian international lost his footing, however, and the ball flew into Gladbach's Nordkurve.

With the aforementioned positive tempo, Robin Hack put the ball in the back of the net for the hosts in the 17th minute, however, the celebrations were cut short just seconds later as the vociferous supporters inside Borussia Park looked over to see the linesman's flag raised.

The chances began to flow for both sides, with Hugo Ekitike missing an opportunity to give Frankfurt the lead as he fluffed his lines inside the box. This was followed by a sweeping move from Gladbach at the other end, however, Hack's ball to Tim Kleindienst was too far behind the striker.

The German international did find himself on the scoresheet, though, just a matter of minutes later. After being in and out of Gerardo Seoane's side this campaign, Florian Neuhaus floated an inch-perfect ball towards the head of Kleindienst, who rose highest to send the ball home as he so often does.

Kleindienst's 13th of the season overtook last season's tally of 12 achieved in the colours of Heidenheim, whilst also being his sixth headed goal of the campaign.

However, matching the ebbs and flows of the first half before the opener, Eintracht Frankfurt found the back of the net to equalise just five minutes later.

Swedish midfielder Hugo Larsson let fly with an effort from the edge of the box, saved onto the bar fantastically by Moritz Nicolas, however, Frenchman Ekitike was there to prod the ball home the rebound from close range.

The goal kickstarted a period of Frankfurt momentum heading into the break, with Ekitike coming close to adding a second seven minutes later, when he got onto the end of a ball flashed across the box by Ansgnar Knauff, stabbing the ball past Nicolas before hitting the post.

Throughout the opening 20 minutes of the second half, neither side was able to craft a big chance until Can Uzun saw a shot saved by Nicolas low down to his right-hand side. Despite the lack of threat in this period, continuous Gladbach noise continued to surround the players.

Seoane, who has never beaten Dino Toppmöller in his coaching career, turned to Luca Netz and Tomas Cvancara, who replaced Lukas Ullrich and Robin Hack.

As the match entered its closing stages, the familiar ebbs and flows continued, with both sides seemingly poised to find a winner if a chance was crafted.

With Frankfurt narrowly taking the title as the better side over the 90 minutes, the encounter ended with the scoreline 1-1. The Eagles pick up their third draw in a row, keeping them in third place. Gladbach will be left wondering what could have been after Kleindienst's opener.