The Eintracht Frankfurt soccer players can plan for the group stage of the Champions League. Coach Niko Arnautis’ team comfortably defeated AC Sparta Prague 5-0 (2-0) in the play-off first leg on Tuesday evening. In front of 5,500 spectators in the poorly attended Deutsche Bank Park, Laura Freigang scored three goals (14th, penalty, 76th and 77th). Her German national team colleague Nicole Anyomi (6th minute) and Géraldine Reuteler (57th) also scored. The second leg in Prague will take place next Tuesday (6.30 p.m.).
“We are of course very, very satisfied and happy with the way we performed – over the full season,” said Arnautis. The new interim national coach Horst Hrubesch was not in the stadium. The Frankfurt team got off to a brilliant start against the Czech championship runners-up: the strong Lara Prasnikar had an eye for the free-standing Anyomi in the penalty area, who shot in from ten meters to take the lead. Shortly afterwards, Barbara Dunst was placed in the 16 and Freigang safely converted the penalty.
Eintracht women are clearly superior
The visiting team could hardly get out of their own half. The Eintracht women, who will play against German champions FC Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday, had to be considered. After the break, Prague had to accept a red card for Aneta Pochmanova, who had brought down Freigang on the edge of the penalty area. The Swiss Reuteler and Freigang increased the score to 3-0 and 4-0 with headers before the European Championship runners-up added a fifth goal.
“I think it was a very, very nice day for us today,” said Freigang, who only played a few minutes at the World Cup in Australia. “Personally, I’m happy for Laura that she had a day like that,” said Arnautis. “She just needs the rhythm because she didn’t play much in the summer. I think she’s doing really well.”
Eintracht secured their place in the play-offs with a 5-4 win on penalties against Juventus Turin. The Frankfurt team can be among the top 16 teams for the first time since 2016, when they were still 1. FFC Frankfurt. The 1. FFC had won the title four times in the premier class or in the previous competition, the UEFA Cup.
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Champions League finalist VfL Wolfsburg can also hope to reach the group stage thanks to top scorer Alexandra Popp. Thanks to two goals from the national player, the German cup winners fought their way to a 3-3 (2-3) draw in the first leg of the second round against top French club Paris FC. The second leg will take place on October 18th. FC Bayern, as German champions, are in the group stage, as are FC Barcelona, FC Chelsea and Olympique Lyon.
In the French capital, Vivien Endemann gave VfL the lead in the fourth minute after a serious goalkeeping error. However, Gaetane Thiney (8th) and Mathilde Bourdieu (15th) turned the game around for Paris within just seven minutes. After Popp’s lucky equalizer (30th), Wolfsburg fell behind again before the break thanks to Julie Dufour (44th). But Popp managed to equalize again (73′).
