At the BayArena, in Leverkusen both sides shared the spoils as the match ended with a final score of 1-1 in the last match of the year. It just was not quite clicking for Leverkusen today as they controlled the majority of they possession and got 16 shots away. However, only three of them managed to hit the target this evening as a late strike from Karim Bellarabi won a point for the home side after trailing with 36 minutes off of the clock.
The first opportunity fell to Eintracht Frankfurt in the 19th minute, after it took a while for both sides to really settle down and string together a few passes. It was the American Timmy Chandler who had a go from outside of the box, but his left-footed effort was always rising and it never troubled Bernd Leno.
Down at the other end, the Turkish sensation Hakan Calhanoglu had a shot blocked and from then on it was Leverkusen with most of the scoring opportunities. One player really stood out for Frankfurt today though and it was the 22-year-old Haris Seferovic as his movement and awareness was excellent throughout the match and in the 30th minute of play, when his shot was just a bit too high after a good delivery from Lucas Piazon off of a set-piece.
It was the visitors that struck first in this match, however. Tin Jedvaj brought down Takashi Inui inside of the area eight minutes after the half an hour mark and Alexander Meier converted his spot kick effort sending it into the bottom left corner of the goal, stunning the home crowd. As the second half was progressing, you could see Leverkusen push the ball up field constantly, which was putting constant pressure on the Frankfrut defence.
Calhanoglu had a couple of attempts blocked shortly after the restart followed up by followed up by a miss from Ömer Topak just a minute afterwards. In the 83rd minute of play, Leverkusen finally broke through as it looked like they were never going to be able to get behind the back line of Frankfurt. Bellarabi received the ball from Lars Bender on the right side of the box and he managed to power it past Timo Hildebrand to secure the point although they portably felt like they deserved more for their efforts.