Eintracht Frankfurt promoted

Frankfurt made sure of their promotion in front of some 7,000 travelling fans, some of whom took to the pitch after the match to celebrate.

The win means that the side cannot be nudged out of the top two, therefore being guaranteed automatic promotion. In fact, Frankfurt now leapfrog Greuther Fürth, who on Friday earned assured promotion with a draw at Eintracht Frankfurt's local rivals, FSV Frankfurt.

"We are overjoyed that we have done it," said coach Armin Veh. "It is simply awesome."

"It is pretty great when you achieve your goal," said club chairman Heribert Burchhagen, who expressed displeasure at the pitch invasion by fans, who were herded back to the stands by police. "Unfortunately this is not so nice," said Burchhagen.

Two-goal hero, own-goal anguish

It had been a particularly good night for Frankfurt's Mohamadou Idrissou, who scored just before the break, hooking in the ball amid a scramble after Aachen keeper Boy Waterman was unable to hold on to a corner from Benjamin Köhler. Until then, an energetic Aachen had largely been able to keep the favorites from being too much of a threat.

Idrissou followed up after the break by smashing in a lobbed ball from Köhler. Any hopes that Aachen might have had of a recovery were extinguished when the home side's Seyi Olaingbesi turned the ball into his own net from a Heiko Butscher cross.

With only two games left to play, bottom-of-the-table Aachen would need to win both their remaining matches to have any possible chance of finishing third from bottom. Under German league rules, that would give them the opportunity to avoid the drop in a relegation-promotion playoff with a third-tier side.

rc/av (dpa, SID)