Can Uzun scores twice as Eintracht Frankfurt win the Rhine-Main derby 3-1 at Mainz

Eintracht Frankfurt finally have a Bundesliga win to show for Adi Hütter's second spell in charge, and it came in the derby that matters most to their fans. A 3-1 victory away at Mainz 05, built on a Can Uzun brace either side of half-time, ended Frankfurt's winless start to the season at their regional rivals' expense.

A penalty that changed the game

Uzun opened the scoring in the 9th minute, but the moment that decided the game came just before half-time. Mainz captain Nadiem Amiri stepped up to a 43rd-minute penalty that could have levelled things — instead Frankfurt goalkeeper Noah Atubolu guessed right and saved it, extending his own streak of stopped Bundesliga spot-kicks to six in a row. Two minutes later, right on the stroke of half-time, Jonathan Burkardt made Mainz pay for the missed chance, finishing off a move set up by Maluze to put Frankfurt 2-0 up at the break.

Uzun added his second in the 60th minute to put the result beyond real doubt, and although Philipp Tietz pulled one back for Mainz in the 89th minute — set up by Ruoppi — it was no more than a consolation on a day defined by what Atubolu kept out rather than what either side actually scored.

Match facts

• 9' — Can Uzun (Eintracht Frankfurt)
• 45+1' — Jonathan Burkardt (Eintracht Frankfurt), assisted by Maluze
• 60' — Can Uzun (Eintracht Frankfurt)
• 89' — Philipp Tietz (Mainz 05), assisted by Ruoppi

The passage of play in first-half stoppage time is the one worth replaying: Amiri stepping up with the score at 1-0, needing only a converted penalty to make it a different game, and instead leaving Mainz two goals worse off inside 120 seconds.

1. 43' — Nadiem Amiri wins a penalty for Mainz and takes it himself
2. 43' — Noah Atubolu saves it, his sixth consecutive stopped Bundesliga penalty
3. 45+1' — Frankfurt break and score through Jonathan Burkardt at the other end

Where it leaves both sides

Both clubs had gone into the weekend without a win. Mainz's only game in the archive before this one was a goalless draw away to Paderborn on the opening weekend — a tidy defensive start that this result undoes at a stroke. Frankfurt's position was worse: a 3-3 draw with Union Berlin followed by a 1-4 home defeat to Augsburg had them 13th with a single point from two games, one of only three sides in the division yet to win. This was Hütter's first league victory since taking charge for a second time, and it came at the ground of the club Frankfurt fans least wanted to lose momentum against.