Ssun instead of rain – but already the first setback for unity. Even if the meteorological conditions for an attractive football game in mild Piraeus are hardly better: The game at Olympiakos takes place without Filip Kostic. The Serb was injured on Tuesday. On Wednesday, when the team turned their back on the dreadful Frankfurt weather and flew to Athens, Kostic was not there. The unity even without Kostic in the European Cup fever – once again.
The Europa League is Frankfurt’s favorite competition. This Thursday, coach Oliver Glasner’s team will have the chance to take a giant step towards the round of 16 with a sense of achievement. With seven points from three games, Eintracht are leaders of Group D. One point behind is Olympiacos, the opponent who can bet on the home game bonus at the Giorgios Karaiskakis Stadium.
When it starts (6.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and on TVNOW), Eintracht will not be alone. 1400 followers made their way to the Greek capital. They will meet in the afternoon in the old Athens Olympic Stadium, from there take a bus convoy to the Olympiakos Stadium named after a freedom fighter in Piraeus, in order to later help atmospherically that Eintracht, which is still playing football like on a roller coaster ride, finally finds a clear course hits. But not much of that has been seen since coach Glasner started work. In the Bundesliga, Eintracht, who are in fifteenth place in the table, is not making any headway at all. Only in the Europa League does the team show a familiar face.
“There is still a lot to do”
The game in Piraeus is the great test. The endurance test against the currently worst Bundesliga team, Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth, will follow on Sunday. Victory is a must there. In Greece Glasner would be happy with a draw, but the Austrian wants more. To do this, he gets his team rotating.
Kristijan Jakic is available again. The Croatian is one of those players that Eintracht desperately needs right now. Consistent, powerful, uncompromising: someone who makes the difference and who already gave a taste of his courageous demeanor in the first leg against Olympiakos. Jakic cleans up, Jakic cleans up. What he cannot do, others have to do: offensively take care of the moments with which Eintracht want to keep Olympiacos at a distance.
The harmless storm is still the team’s Achilles heel. It only poses a moderate risk of goals. Glasner held the last exercise before the endurance test in Piraeus in Frankfurt – without Kostic and also without Ajdin Hrustic, who was also ailing. The mood was halfway relaxed, but that doesn’t mean anything. Board spokesman Axel Hellmann had already warned after the happy 1-1 draw against RB Leipzig that “we shouldn’t be fooled by the last-minute equalization”. Hellmann is not the only one who knows: “We don’t have a lot of cogs meshing as they have to. There is still a lot to be done. “
The harmony between the sadness of everyday life in the league and enthusiasm in the Europa League: the Frankfurters feel particularly at home outside of Germany. They have won eight of the ten away games in the group stage of the Europa League in the past few years. The man who makes the difference not only in the Bundesliga, but also in Europe at Eintracht, is Kostic. Statistics fans have noted that the Serb has already hit 31 crosses in this Europa League season alone. Top score among all teams. But now he is failing.
This is a major weakening for unity. Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp already complained fundamentally: “We make too many wrong decisions that make life difficult for ourselves.” Sports director Markus Krösche also sees great potential for improvement: “We often act too slowly when building up the game.”
At the same time, the manager is convinced “that the team has quality. She has already shown that this season. ”A little encouragement: In its almost 100-year history of the club, Olympiakos has played 18 European Cup games against German teams. 13 of them were lost. The last against Eintracht in Frankfurt.
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