All beginnings are difficult: Frankfurt lost 3-0 to Lisbon on their debut in the premier class. It should be better in the second leg.
Photo: imago/Michael Bermel
The rituals are already normal: checking in at the airport, taking off, landing and back. For Eintracht Frankfurt fans and officials, coaches and players, trips like the one to Lisbon are almost part of everyday life. Because in this calendar year, peak after peak follows on the international stage. The last group game in the Champions League at Sporting Lisbon this Tuesday electrified the city and club again.
Because the all-or-nothing constellation is completely atypical for the premier class. In the extremely balanced Group D, not even Premier League third-placed Tottenham Hotspur has secured their round of 16 ticket. Everything is possible for all four clubs. The starting position seems made for the Europa League winner from Frankfurt. “Hop or top,” says board spokesman Axel Hellmann. “That’s what we love: these finals!” There are three scenarios: progress in the Champions League, continue playing in the Europa League, farewell to Europe.
The 51-year-old would only talk about the second option after the final whistle at the Estadio José Alvalade. So Hellmann prefers to enumerate what reaching the knockout stages of the premier class would mean: “If we could crown that, that would be a pound for the future.” You could “push our limits” – it would be “a big milestone economically and an enormous sporting achievement«. Rewarded with a minimum of ten million euros. And: “It would be historical.”
Eintracht, which has always been internationally represented since 2018 with one exception, would be the second club in the last quarter of a century to come this far as a Champions League newcomer. The Belgian champions KAA Gent, who lost in the round of 16 at VfL Wolfsburg, managed that in 2015. The Frankfurt path is remarkable because the past few years have been characterized by significant staff turnover in addition to the financial cuts due to Corona.
“First the Buffalo gone (the striker trio Sebastian Haller, Luka Jovic and Ante Rebic left the club in the summer of 2019, editor’s note), then Silva gone, then Kostic gone,” Hellmann recalls. In the summer of 2021, coach Adi Hütter and sports director Fredi Bobic also left their current contracts. The fact that there was no slump despite so much upheaval is the “actual achievement” of the diva from the Main, who is no longer so moody overall. Hellmann praises the “basic stability, that’s our pillar.” The lawyer himself embodies the constant on the board, the supervisory board guarantees continuity. “Other clubs that went through a similar molt suffered very serious crashes,” says the eloquent maker.
And so Frankfurt is in a much better position than traditional locations such as Hamburg, Bremen or Gelsenkirchen. The capital Berlin or an economically strong city like Stuttgart also follow. Sports director Markus Krösche, who stands for the Frankfurt course, has a large part to play in this: “We won’t let anything and anyone deter us from our path.” And of course head coach Oliver Glasner, who says with a view to the decisive game in Lisbon: “We will play to win.« The two may not be in each other’s arms every day, but their high level of professionalism radiates from a strong-willed, robust team that has completed an amazing development process within two months in the premier class.
Nobody fears that this ensemble will have to learn the hard way again, as they did in the 3-0 defeat against Sporting Lisbon. At that time, the Hessians had attacked too impetuously, sometimes naively – savvy Portuguese put three pinpricks. But that won’t happen again, Glasner is certain of that given the maturing process. “We just played on an equal footing against Dortmund – that speaks for our development.” The 48-year-old has “no concerns at all” even with the high strain, because: “We’ve been through it like this for four weeks. We’ll get through it like this for the rest of the two weeks.«
Secretly, quietly, Eintracht wants to mature into a top German team. Glasner is far too often in Sachsenhausen, at weekly markets and trendy hangouts for the fun-loving Austrian not to know with so much contact with the citizens of Frankfurt: Nothing conveys more motivation in the environment of Eintracht than the magical nights in Europe, which seem to be in an endless loop to run.
