Trainer Oliver Glasner wants to expel the diva from Eintracht Frankfurt. Your ugly bouts of arrogance. Under his guidance, the recurring arrogant Frankfurt behavior against supposedly worse opponents should be a thing of the past. “We now have the chance to show that we’ve come a step further. So far I haven’t managed to break the habit,” said Glasner before the cup game at Stuttgarter Kickers and admitted that “probably had the wrong ideas”. “But I’m thinking a lot and I hope the light will dawn on me soon.”
In Stuttgart, Eintracht has not added a gloomy football chapter to its club history. The Frankfurt team won the tough second round duel at the fifth division club on Tuesday evening 2-0 without impressing and, fulfilling their duty, made it into the round of 16 of the DFB Cup. The goals for the Europa League winner scored in front of 10,000 spectators in the venerable stadium on the Waldau Randal Kolo Muani (11th minute) and Hrvoje Smolcic (18th).
“We did very well in the first half, but we struggled in the second. We did less – for whatever reason,” said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Captain Sebastian Rode said that Eintracht should have played their actions “better” in the second round. It wasn’t easy, the opponents were really motivated,” he said. Glasner had seen a “courageous cup appearance” by Stuttgart. “They made life very difficult for us.” After the half-time break, his team “switched to administration mode, we didn’t want that,” criticized the coach.
Glasner offered his best team
Glasner didn’t want the clash with the leaders of the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg to be understood as an “annoying compulsory task or game to test”. Accordingly, according to his own assessment, he started with his best team of the day. From the permanent staff, he gave Daichi Kamada, Jesper Lindstrom and Evan Ndicka a breather, they were all sitting on the bench. Goalkeeper Trapp came to the team from Paris on Tuesday morning.
At the Ballon d’Or, he finished sixth in the goalkeeper rankings, ahead of Manuel Neuer. Eintracht did not take a place on the podium in the Team of the Year election – despite their triumphant march through Europe. “If it’s really about recognizing an extraordinary performance by a team, you couldn’t have gotten past Eintracht Frankfurt,” said board spokesman Axel Hellmann in Stuttgart.
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In the duel with the strong Kickers, the Frankfurters got to feel the enthusiasm of the underdog. At first they had trouble asserting themselves as favorites. Eintracht made the opening goal from their first chance: After a nice interaction with Rafael Borré, who was allowed to play for Lindström, Kolo Muani scored with a flick. The efficiency was right with the Hessians. After a corner kick from Mario Götze, Smolcic – who was on for Ndicka – headed it up to make it 2-0, the Croatian’s first competitive goal for Eintracht. Borré hit the post of the Stuttgart goal with his shot (25th). Götze also failed to take advantage of a reasonable opportunity (33rd).
The Frankfurt defenders had their opponents well under control, Trapp didn’t have to intervene seriously in the first half. Shortly before the start of the second period, the supporters of both teams let off fireworks in their fan blocks, the restart started with a delay. When the smoke had settled, Eintracht often lacked an overview of the game structure. She only did what was absolutely necessary, which was not enough for the demands of a Bundesliga club.
The Kickers presented themselves with commitment, but they lacked the penetrating power up front. Frankfurt, where Kamada replaced Sebastian Rode after 79 minutes, did not impress in this category either: they did not have a significant chance to score in the second round. Glasner would have wished for “more initiative” from his team. “We didn’t play well in the second half. But we managed to achieve the big goal,” said sporting director Markus Krösche. Glasner no longer wants to see the diva-like side of his team. In Stuttgart, she showed how it works, first and foremost with the result.
