EIn a few minutes after the 2: 3 against Dortmund, which was annoying for Eintracht, the Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner announced a change of direction on Saturday evening. The Eintracht professionals should carry it out on the pitch at the next opportunity. “If we win the ball with a 2-1 lead in the 93rd minute, I want in the future that we play forward and not goalkeeper,” said Glasner on the podium in the World Cup arena. Connected with his words was the clear message to his team that he would “clearly address” this in the new working week. “I won’t leave the boys alone. That is the next step that we want to take, ”said Glasner. In the role of chief strategist, he clearly set the new course.
In the first league game of the new year, the Hessians suffered a setback that was unnecessary from the point of view of their coach. Which could easily have been avoided with a view ahead. Because after two goals (15th and 24th minute) by striker Rafael Borré, the Frankfurt had already led 2-0. Substitute Thorgan Hazard then scored the 1: 2 (71st) in the second half of the game. This was favored by a stick error by the Frankfurt defense chief Martin Hinteregger. “No reproach to Martin,” said Glasner. But what Eintracht had to reproach itself for was “that we managed too much, that we gave too much back to our goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. From the 1: 2 we did not look for solutions to the front, but to the back with supposed safety balls on our toes. “
Overall, the trainer had the impression that “we wanted to keep up with the times”. The Frankfurters were “punished” for their sudden passivity, admitted Glasner. “You see it again and again: It was a bit like the rabbit in front of the queue. Today the snake bit shut. “The Dortmund Jew Bellingham and Mahmoud Dahoud missed Eintracht with their late goals to 2: 2 and 3: 2 (86th and 89th) the sporty knockout BVB.
By the start of the second half of the season, the Hessians, who could have jumped to fifth place on Saturday, had won six of their seven previous encounters. Before that, only the home game against Hertha BSC Berlin was lost. The bottom line is that there are now two failures against BVB: Eintracht had already given up 2: 5 in the first leg. “Compared to that, however, we are much closer to BVB,” said Glasner after the second test of strength. However, that does not change the fact that his record in the duels with Dortmund is disastrous. Because the sixth meeting meant the sixth defeat for the 47-year-old Austrian, who as coach of VfL Wolfsburg had already had four problems with the outcome of the game.
Lindström has it on his feet
“We shot a lot of games at the last second. Today it was the other way around, ”said Frankfurt’s winger Timothy Chandler. The 31-year-old professional also found a fellow sufferer in Markus Krösche. The sports director, who brought the 17-year-old Spaniard Fabio Blanco, who was dissatisfied in Frankfurt, to FC Barcelona on Saturday, complained like Glasner about the team’s “too defensive mindset” after the promising 2-0 lead. “Then you invite the opponent to press. In the end, we weren’t able to relieve the pressure as a team, so BVB has become stronger and stronger, ”said Krösche. “You have to force such a strong opponent to defend.”
Such an annoyance: Eintracht missed the chance to win against Dortmund.
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Image: EPA
But Eintracht not only chose the wrong direction. Krösche also noted a “weakening of strength” among the Frankfurters because it was “a very intense game”. “In the end we ran out of breath,” said Captain Sebastian Rode. Endurance runner and leading player Djibril Sow was unable to actively participate, as the Swiss national player was suspected of having a coronavirus infection. With Sow, the test results “did not give a clear picture. Out of a sense of responsibility towards the player, Sow was not included in the squad in consultation with the health department, ”said Eintracht on the Saturday before the game. The same finally applied to the professionals Almamy Touré and Erik Durm, who also fell into the suspected cases category before the first division kick-off in 2022.
To the surprise of many, Jesper Lindström took the opposite route. His failure announced by Eintracht did not come true, because the 21-year-old Dane was able to test himself free in time. During his work in the “absolute top game” (Glasner), Lindström had two chances to make it 3-0 – shortly after the half-time break he appeared free in front of BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel after he had tunneled national player Emre Can worth seeing. But Lindström failed at Kobel in front of 250 spectators. “Jesper didn’t hit the ball cleanly,” said his coach, not blaming the Dane. Glasner described the occurrence of the fifth defeat of the season in the 18th game as “very tough. But sometimes you have to take a hard blow on the neck in order to be able to take the next step forward ”. The coach’s gaze is directed towards the future: he doesn’t want to see an all too cautious Eintracht team that only manages their lead in the future.
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