“He lies perfectly”. That’s what Lara Prasnikar thought, as she later said, before the last and decisive situation of the game. Added time was up when the Slovenian ran for a free-kick from just over 16 yards. When the ball flew into the Leverkusen net in the left corner of the goal, joy broke out in the Brentanobad stadium.
Coach Niko Arnautis also ran across the pitch completely detached to throw himself into the cheering ball of his players. It was the happy end of a Bundesliga game that found a deserved winner in the form of the Frankfurt Eintracht women, literally at the last second – the referee didn’t even start the match against Bayer after Prasnikar’s direct goal.
Fourth goal of the season for the Slovenian
Exuberant calls in staccato style greeted the goal scorer in the cabin aisle after the final whistle: “Pras-ni-kaaaaar”. The 24-year-old could look back on a couple of goalless games on her own account, which annoyed her but allowed her to confidently seize the free-kick opportunity in added time. “Everyone says: Don’t put yourself under any pressure – but as a striker you always want to score goals,” said Prasnikar after her fourth goal of the season. The Slovenian benefited from the fact that the Bayer players ducked their heads in the wall and thus opened up the gap through which the ball found its way into the net.
It was the final flourish in a match that had some tough passages and in which the favored Eintracht team was defensively stable, but offensively got tangled up in the Leverkusen defense for a long time. After such a game, “the joy is pure and boundless,” said Arnautis, whose team defended second place in the Bundesliga.
And, no less important: saved himself from the next disappointment after the bitter cup loss at second division club RB Leipzig against the first division middle class team Leverkusen. Especially before the upcoming “summit meeting in Wolfsburg” (Arnautis), which will be given a worthy setting in the duel between first and second in the large Wolfsburg Arena.
From no man’s land up to second place
“Cheeky and courageous”, says the trainer, they want to compete with the champions next Saturday. From the comfortable starting position, that you don’t have much to lose. The current 20 points from eight league games are “outstanding”, says Arnautis, “if you consider that a year and a half ago we were still in no man’s land in the table”.
Similar to the league home game against 1. FC Köln, Eintracht also needed a while against Leverkusen to get going offensively. In the first half in front of 2,500 spectators in the Brentanobad stadium, only Geraldine Reuteler had a great chance to score – the Swiss player’s shot was blocked on the goal line.
After the break, there was an urgent phase for Eintracht, but in quick succession Prasnikar (54th minute), Reuteler (55th) and again Prasnikar (57th) were unable to take advantage of the best chances. Leverkusen’s attacking efforts were nipped in the bud by the well-organized and energetic SGE defense compared to the failure in Leipzig – although central defender Sara Doorsoun had a weak day this time.
