Photo: imago/Heiko Becker
When Oliver Glasner afterwards listed the reasons for the next game being shot, the coach spoke of the new self-confidence at Eintracht Frankfurt. “In the end we decide how the game ends,” he said to the team, Glasner reported, and his players “after falling behind quickly decided to win the game with an incredibly great mentality, with belief in themselves.” .
In his brief presentation after the 2-1 (1-1) win at FC Augsburg on Saturday, Glasner also explained what his kickers could have done internally against the next effort, four days after their round of 16 entry into the Champions League, which the Frankfurter had also reached 2-1 after being 1-0 down at Sporting Lisbon. But instead of whining now, his team once again made a constructive effort to convert the deficit after 35 seconds through Mergim Berisha into the next win with an exclamation mark. Glasner looked proud as he referred to the stressful agenda to underscore the value of this achievement. The Frankfurters have already completed 22 competitive games this season.
Sebastian Rode (13th) and Ansgar Knauff (64th) brought about the twelfth victory with their goals. Knauff described the conviction that the people of Frankfurt have now internalized. “We didn’t let the goal we conceded throw us off course and just kept playing as if nothing had happened. We just played how we wanted to play,” said Knauff, “now it doesn’t matter which opponent is in which competition. We’ve found our style of play.” It was “a great performance, especially after the game against Lisbon,” added Rode, “that also gives us confidence again.”
The descriptions of the Frankfurt told a lot about the crucial differences between the two teams with the very similar approach. The Augsburgers are also pursuing the approach of winning the ball and then countering quickly. But in contrast to the Frankfurters, the Augsburgers are not yet as firmly anchored in their processes and their self-confidence and cleverness are not yet as pronounced. They have been waiting for a win at FC Augsburg for six competitive games, and they only managed to get two points during this phase. Above all, they look back on the last five games in which they always led, but always lost their lead and even lost four times. The only draw came against Leipzig (3:3), when Augsburg were already 3:0 ahead.
At FCA, they know why, despite many good approaches, they have recently generated little income. Managing director Stefan Reuter referred to some “too many mistakes in defensive behavior”. Examples of this were provided by the game against Frankfurt with a ball loss in midfield in front of Rodes 1:1 and with the ball being saved too short in front of Knauffs 1:2. “We have to learn something new,” said Reuter. Midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger, 34, emphasized the “resilience” of Frankfurt, he said: “They were at the back and didn’t give a fuck.”
It is also a question of the lack of maturity that FCA often works the other way around. In addition, the Augsburgers had to cope with many failures recently. And of course the people of Frankfurt have the higher individual quality. Reuter raved about Mario Götze in particular. It was as if the 30-year-old “had a radar around him that he played out of the pressing with the first contact”. Reuter would like to see midfielder Götze in the jersey of the German national team at the World Cup just as much as Augsburg striker Berisha. Before that, the FCA still have the league games at Union Berlin on Wednesday and against Bochum on Saturday. Captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw recommends winning again for a change. “Nobody wants that, standing there after every game with a really good feeling, but without points,” he said, “we have to change that quickly.”
