The way to the group stage leads via Israel or Bulgaria. It took a good quarter of an hour before the draw on Monday at 2:17 p.m. was certain: Eintracht will face a play-off opponent in their Conference League premiere that has not yet been finally determined. Hapoel Beer Sheva and Levski Sofia still have to play in the third qualifying round, which will be played on August 10th and 17th. Whoever wins meets Frankfurt Eintracht. The final stage leading up to the group stage is played on Thursdays – August 24th and 31st.
Eintracht must first play away from home. The European Football Union wants to announce exactly when the game will be played this Tuesday at 6 p.m. The play-offs are about one of the 32 tickets for the group stage of the Conference League. “Both Beer Sheva and Sofia have their qualities,” said Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche in a first statement. “Playing the second leg at home in front of our fans is definitely not a disadvantage. We definitely want to get into the group stage and win both games.”
At the last minute
The Conference League is new territory for Eintracht. The fact that this is only in third place in terms of value behind the Champions League and the Europa League is superficially secondary. Eintracht is happy that they made the leap to Europe at the last minute.
Two things had to happen for this to happen: Eintracht fulfilled their home game task on the last Bundesliga matchday with a 2-1 win against Sportclub Freiburg – and VfL Wolfsburg, who were ahead of Eintracht in the table, made a decisive slip, because the team of the Bundesliga club lost to relegated Hertha BSC former Frankfurt soccer teacher Niko Kovac 1:2. The result: Eintracht moved up to seventh place. The qualification for the play-offs for the Conference League was done – a nice farewell gift from the outgoing coach Oliver Glasner.
For Eintracht, both possible opponents are blank slates. The Hapoel Beer Sheva squad is valued at a total of 16.79 million euros on the transfermarkt.de portal, Levski Sofia at 18.6 million euros. For comparison: the player values of last year’s Europa League winner Eintracht are estimated at 276.6 million euros.
Sheva or Sofia: Eintracht fans are traveling again in the European Cup. : Image: Huebner
Important for the Frankfurt fans who love to travel: The capacity of the Toto Yaakov Turner Stadium in Israel is 16,126 seats. Since a contingent of five percent of all tickets is available for the respective guest team, Eintracht can count on the official support of 806 supporters. The Georgi Asparukhov stadium in the Bulgarian capital Sofia is more spacious. There are 29,200 seats, which means that 1,460 Eintracht fans will receive tickets. Eintracht plans to announce details of ticket allocation this Tuesday.
Whirlwind knob
Among other things, this is certain in advance: Ansgar Knauff is again a serious alternative in coach Dino Toppmöller’s squad. The winger, who has been injured for a long time, has returned earlier than expected after breaking his collarbone and made his mark with his almost half-hour game against Nottingham Forest. After the zero number in the friendly against England, the 21-year-old U-21 international confidently announced “that I want to play and take my chance”. Toppmöller knows what the young Knauff is capable of. “I’m not at one hundred percent,” said Knauff, “yet. But not much is missing.”
Knauff was one of the whirlwinds who were allowed to present themselves from the 66th minute. The fact that the attacking midfielder got fit faster than hoped is also due to “the fact that the fracture has healed well. The rehab worked very well. Overall, everything went two to three weeks faster.” His goal is no surprise: “I want to work my way back into the first eleven and play as much as possible.”
A comment by Ralf Weitbrecht Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4 Ralf Weitbrecht Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 5 Ralf Weitbrecht Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 1
They all want that at Eintracht – including young professional Hugo Larsson. The technically gifted Swede, who came to Frankfurt in the summer, received his first big public praise from his coach after his brief spell against Nottingham. “Hugo made an excellent game,” said Toppmöller. “He has very good dynamics and technique. He can implement things quickly.” Toppmöller is optimistic: “Hugo can mature into a top player in the next few years.”
