The prospects have brightened noticeably. Five weeks ago, Eintracht left the field as losers for the last time. On the international stage, she conceded a goal in the final minute against PAOK Saloniki to make it 1-2. Since then, six games have followed, of which she won five (with a draw), and which, not only because of the pleasing results for her, contributed to the fact that some dark fears that this football season could be tough and unpleasant seem exaggerated in the moment. The Frankfurters appear as a solid team in which the players receive appropriate instructions from coach Dino Toppmöller in order to prepare for different opponents.
After a sportingly golden October, this Thursday it’s all about surviving at HJK Helsinki (6.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa Conference League and on RTL+), accompanied by Finnish winter harbingers – and with it a good position in Group G Conference League to claim. Another success would create the best conditions to overtake them on points on November 30th, when we meet the Greeks again.
As first place after the preliminary round, Eintracht would be freed from the additional task of having to assert themselves in a play-off match against a downgraded Europa League third party in order to be able to enter the decisive phase of the competition that was newly established two years ago. In Helsinki there is the opportunity to further gain self-confidence for the end of the year, in which two heavyweight duels await them as the current seventh place in the league: the December games against Munich and Leverkusen, as well as the cup round of 16 in Saarbrücken on December 6th from 6 p.m.
Got into the “flow”.
Because the Frankfurt team beat Helsinki 6-0 in their first meeting a fortnight ago (and could have scored half a dozen more goals), they are looking at the next meeting with a courage that has made them naturally assume the role of favorites: “We’re going there, to win,” said defender Robin Koch, who had to stay in Frankfurt due to an injury sustained during training. The current stress of appointments is “extremely fun” for him and the others, reported the 27-year-old. “It means regenerating, resting and simply focusing on every game.” For Toppmöller, his team has got into the “flow”, as he likes to put it, “you can say that we are on a really good path”.
Hugo Larsson contributed to the fact that, despite some wobbles at the start, the team took a direction that showed a clear upward trend. The Swede needed little time to get started in order to interpret the role between defense and attack as the sporting management had hoped when they chose the youngster in the spring to play him alongside the also new Ellyes Skhiri and captain Sebastian Rode to grow into a role that was supposed to compensate for the departure of Djibril Sow.
Larsson’s development is happening at a rapid pace. “He does it brilliantly. “Hugo is very advanced, also in terms of personality,” Rode, who has been injured again since mid-September, praised his capable colleague, who with his energy and willingness to run looks like the image of the South Hesse in his younger days.
Larsson himself is grateful for the trust that Toppmöller has placed in him: “Not every coach dares to let a 19-year-old play so often.” The teenager, who had previously been the pulsating heart of the midfield at Malmö FF, had numerous options, to continue his career away from home, including from clubs on the British Isles, Spain or Italy. Eintracht seemed like the right address for him to further establish himself.
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The lanky blonde, who stands up for himself in one-on-one situations thanks to clever timing even without big muscles, is one of the positive surprises that the radical restructuring of the Frankfurt squad did not necessarily lead to. “Every single player has developed. The automatisms have developed. And we win the games and have the consistency in front of the goal,” says Krösche, seeing progress in a learning process that Larsson is driving forward as an energetic tackler and six-man with an eye for the open spaces.
One goal decorates his personal record so far. “We will build Hugo up and help him take his next steps,” Krösche promised when he was introduced. The transfer expert Fabrizio Romano reported that Eintracht, which sees itself as an address where talents can mature before they are allowed to move on (for good money), paid a transfer fee of 11.5 million euros for the services of the young national player. The club did not confirm the numbers. It already seems foreseeable: the amount that Frankfurt could one day collect for their youngest newcomer is likely to be much higher.
