Dhe Bundesliga match between VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt (2-2) was briefly interrupted on Sunday evening because one of the two goals was not properly anchored. The Frankfurter Bank noticed shortly after the kick-off: One of the two goalposts is too high.
The coaching team informed the referee, who interrupted the game after two minutes, Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp hung on the crossbar several times – and thereby pushed the case back into place. After another two minutes the game could be continued.
“Eagle-eyed Michael Angerschmid discovered that,” said Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner after the game about his assistant. “At first he still thought: This is an optical illusion. We’re at an age when we can’t see very well anymore. But then it was like that. I also said to Niko Kovac: The goal is a bit too high on one side.”
“A very, very good season”
Trapp himself hadn’t noticed that before. “The referee came to me and at first I didn’t know what he wanted,” said the national goalkeeper on the Internet broadcaster DAZN. In the end it was Trapp himself who fixed the problem. In terms of sport, the current concerns in Frankfurt could not be dispelled so easily.
Niko Kovac had it comparatively easy when he came to Eintracht Frankfurt in 2016. At the time, the club was a relegation candidate, for sixth place after 23 Bundesliga matchdays they might have carried it on their shoulders over the Römer. And now? 2: 2 (2: 2) played Eintracht at Kovac’s new club VfL Wolfsburg. The result was enough to keep a comfortable lead over all non-European Cup places. But it was not enough to get back to within one point of the Champions League ranks in the Bundesliga.
In the assessment of a sometimes fast-paced Sunday evening game, the second point of view prevailed – and that went quite against the grain of the Frankfurt veteran Sebastian Rode. The 32-year-old was there when Eintracht last played in the second Bundesliga in the 2011/12 season.
So he said in the cabin aisle: “Our expectations have now been raised so much that we should and must reach the Champions League.” That’s why a 2-2 win in Wolfsburg is “of course not enough for all outsiders”. “But for me,” Rode continued, “it’s all rated too negatively. We’re having a very, very good season. We can’t outplay every opponent. A draw in Wolfsburg is not that dramatic.”
DFB Cup winner 2018, Europa League semi-finalist 2019, Europa League winner 2022: In some situations, Eintracht falls victim to its own success. Your former coach Kovac, who created the sporting foundations for this development in his two years in Frankfurt, had already emphasized this before the reunion on Sunday evening.
Everything at this club is growing steadily, he said. “Above all, the demands are growing. Eintracht is no longer satisfied with tenth place, they always want more. This is implemented in the club. Everyone who comes to Frankfurt knows what is expected and what you want to achieve.”
Since the beginning of February, the team has been lagging behind this expectation. In the second half of the Bundesliga season, she only won two out of six games. In the Champions League, after the 0-2 first-leg defeat against SSC Napoli, the round of 16 is threatened.
In Wolfsburg, Frankfurt turned around a quick 0:1 deficit through Omar Marmoush (10th minute) within just four minutes: Randal Kolo Muani (22nd) scored to 1:1, Evan Ndicka (26th) to 2: 1. From the opponent’s point of view, the 2:2 by Yannick Gerhardt (43rd) was only a minimum wage for the fact that VfL had significantly more and significantly better chances in this game.
And so everything is still possible for Eintracht this season: from a place in the Champions League, a place in the Champions League and another cup win to losing all goals, as this club has done in the second half of the season has shown more often.
In the end, coach Oliver Glasner agreed with his captain Rode in his analysis. “We have to be careful not to think: We drive everywhere and pick up the points in passing,” said the former Wolfsburg coach. “I can live with this result very well because I know that it is very difficult to score points here. I’m fine with the result.”
