On his return from injury, Alexander Meier made his impact immediately with a hat-trick. His goals, along with Luc Castaignos and Haris Seferovic, capped off Eintracht Frankfurt's incredible 6-2 victory over 1. FC Köln.

Strong start for the hosts

The rout began after just four minutes. Aleksandar Ignjovski's cross was pin-point and gave Meier the perfect chance to get off the mark. He did just that and headed past the helpless Timo Horn, who was in for a very busy evening.

The young stopper wasn't helped by an unusually unsettled defence in front of him, and Marco Russ' through ball to Castaignos carved them open once again. The Dutch forward, who bagged a brace in their last outing, stayed cool inside the box to slot past the goalkeeper and double Frankfurt's lead.

It was a dreadful start that got even worse soon after, Makoto Hasebe fed Seferovic and the Swiss striker combined with his partner from last season to great effect. As so often was the case, Seferovic's cross found Meier and this time was no different. The latter bagged his brace with a near-post finish.

Modeste strikes back, but Castaignos responds immediately

There did seem to be a glimmer of hope for the Billy Goats when Anthony Modeste nabbed yet another goal. The Frenchman has been in fine fettle since moving to Westfalen, and he coolly headed home from Simon Zoller's ball into the box to reduce the deficit.

That optimism was crushed as quickly as it came about. Hasebe's ball through cut Dominique Heintz out of the game and fell for Castaignos, and he remained calm to put it past Horn once again. His strike was the last major action of the half, and brought to a close the mad half-hour period of scoring.

Slower second half still sees three goals scored

The second half was much more quiet but that allowed Hasebe to continue his steady work in midfield. The midfield pairing of the Japanese and young Marc Stendera were complementing each other brilliantly, but the plaudits would go to the Frankfurt front-line.

Castaignos would turn provider with 15 minutes to go, picking out Seferovic who curled into the bottom corner to notch up a deserved goal of his own.

Heintz looked to have put a damper on proceedings at the end when he headed home a late consolation goal. However, the day was Frankfurt's and mostly certainly Alex Meier's. Substitute Johannes Flum set up the forward, and netted the fourth header of the game to seal his hat-trick and add the gloss to an already impressive result.

Frankfurt move up to fourth on seven points, leapfrogging the Billy Goats - who also have the same number of points - due to the huge win. Armin Veh's men travel to Hamburger SV next weekend while the Rheinische derby awaits for Köln.

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About the author
Jonathan Walsh
SoccerSight IFA commentator. VAVEL deputy editor-in-chief/VAVEL Bundesliga editor-in-chief and writer. Email: [email protected]