It would be a surprise if Frankfurt’s Eintracht, which is so powerful internationally, missed out on entering the group stage of the Conference League this time. Not just because the Bundesliga soccer club has qualifying rounds. All four in which the Hessians have been represented so far mastered them with flying colors with a total of seven wins and only one defeat and thus finally qualified for European business.
Frankfurt’s away opponent in the first leg of the play-offs on Thursday (7 p.m.), Levski Sofia, should not stand in the way of the great ambitions of the 2022 Europa League winner. The Bulgarians are currently sixth in the “efbet league” with three wins and two defeats. In the second and third qualifying rounds of the Conference League, coach Nikolaj Kostov’s team prevailed against KF Shkupi from North Macedonia and Israeli representatives Hapoel Beer Sheva FC. These were not high hurdles.
“No one says the Conference League isn’t good enough”
The team from Sofia must not hope that the Frankfurt team, who are entering the competition with the play-off round – the second leg is on August 31 in the Waldstadion – could underestimate the Bulgarian cup winners of 2022. “We’ve played regularly internationally over the past few years, but I don’t have the feeling that it’s normal here,” says Kevin Trapp. “There will be no one on the team who says the Conference League isn’t good enough. That’s how we’re going to approach it and we’re going to take the competition very seriously,” announces the goalkeeper, adding that it is “special” to “play internationally with this club”. After two encounters, the international stage should not close again in the third highest European competition for Eintracht.
Before game number one, Frankfurt had to deal with increased bureaucracy. They did not include Kristijan Jakic in their squad for the play-off games, the deadline was August 18 – for “sporting reasons”, as a club spokesman announced on Tuesday. But in the first first division home game against Darmstadt 98 (1:0) then captain Sebastian Rode injured his calf. The midfielder will be sidelined for between a week and two.
Stuttgart shows interest
That’s why Eintracht wants to nominate Jakic. At the time this issue went to press, it was not certain whether it would be successful. The future of the Croatian is also not yet clear. League rivals VfB Stuttgart are interested in his commitment. Jakic could get more playing time in defensive midfield at VfB than in Frankfurt. However, this is not a good time to change jobs. Because in the duel with the “Lilien” Jakic was the Rode substitute from the sixth minute of the game. At the moment, Frankfurt coach Dino Toppmöller does not want to do without the 26-year-old.
There is currently no huge gap in the Eintracht storm. The Frankfurt and the French top club Paris St. Germain have not yet been able to agree on a change of star striker Randal Kolo Muani. The French’s first offer of around 65 million euros did not meet Eintracht’s expectations, from their point of view it should be at least 35 million euros more. The redemption poker is now in full swing. In the not unlikely event of having to replace Kolo Muani, Bremen’s Niclas Füllkrug has now reappeared on the Frankfurt list of candidates. Sports director Markus Krösche is said to have asked about the 30-year-old national striker some time ago. At that time, the Bremen transfer fee of around 20 million euros apparently did not correspond to his ideas. The unerring Stuttgart striker Serhou Guirassy is also worth considering for Eintracht.
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Kolo Muani will most likely be used in Sofia. For a new employer, the Frenchman would still be eligible to play internationally after a change of club. Eintracht will play their third competitive game of the season on Thursday, while Sofia has played nine games. That may not be a huge competitive advantage for the 26-time Bulgarian champions, who have five Brazilians on their payroll. The Frankfurters consider themselves strong enough to live up to their role as favorites and to be part of the group phase that begins in September. Frankfurt’s successful predecessor teams have done it often enough.
