Eintracht Frankfurt women want to be in the Champions League

SFor two years it has been the dominant topic in the cosmos of the women of Frankfurt Eintracht: getting a starting place in the Champions League, continuing the long tradition of international games on the Main. Two years after the four-time European Cup winners 1. FFC Frankfurt – the last German title holder in 2015 – merged into the great Eintracht, the harvest season is about to begin. “We worked long and hard to qualify. We don’t want to let that get away from us now,” says captain Tanja Pawollek of the FAZ

“The coach really got us fired up”

But there is still a long way to go before the Hessians play their way into the select circle of the 16 best European teams in the Champions League group stage. These days there are two knockout games to be played in Denmark.

As part of a mini-tournament, Eintracht must defeat host club Fortuna Hjørring this Thursday evening (7 p.m. on Eintracht TV and on the club’s own YouTube channel) and then win against either Ajax Amsterdam or Kristianstads DFF in the tournament final on Sunday (1 p.m.). Otherwise the dream will be over before the next qualifying round in September.

“Before departure, the coach really fired us up again, saying that we don’t want to go home without two wins there,” says midfielder Tanja Pawollek. Because the Bundesliga round doesn’t start for four weeks and the various European Championship participants joined the team late, the preparation was “a special challenge”, says coach Niko Arnautis. But that’s exactly what they wanted, as they made it to third place on the last day of the Bundesliga match.

Tanja Pawollek, who only returned to action in March after a break of almost a year after a cruciate ligament rupture, was one of the players who had been preparing in Frankfurt for weeks. “With the return of the national players, there was even more speed and focus,” says the 23-year-old, who recently extended her contract early until mid-2025.