Such an unspectacular second-round victory in the DFB Cup against a lower-class opponent does not normally spark enthusiasm among the members of an ambitious Bundesliga club like Eintracht Frankfurt, and striker Ansgar Knauff’s conclusion sounded correspondingly sober on Tuesday: “It definitely wasn’t our best game, but we did We’re through to the next round,” said the Frankfurt player after the 2-0 win at Viktoria Köln, which he completed late with his goal in the 90th minute.
It was one of those duels for which the term “work victory” was invented at some point, but a work victory that, from Markus Krösche’s perspective, appeared in a new light thanks to the news from the other stadiums. “In the end, we did it confidently and professionally,” said Eintracht’s sports director, initially appearing as matter-of-fact as Knauff, before adding: “You just have to look at who else got kicked out.”
Higher cup chances for Frankfurt
Krösche had just been informed about FC Bayern’s defeat in Saarbrücken, which completed an astonishing overall picture. With Leipzig, who have recently won the competition twice, another title contender has been eliminated, and only six Bundesliga clubs have reached the round of the last 16. This significantly increases the chances of winning the cup for a club like Eintracht Frankfurt, especially since the team developed a quality that evening that many other Bundesliga teams apparently lacked in the first two rounds of the cup: “Even against a third division team, you have to be just as sharp and ready.” said coach Dino Toppmöller and praised the “spirit” of his team several times.
Due to the victory and the serious attitude, it was forgivable that the performance “wasn’t as good in terms of football as in the last few weeks,” the coach explained, “we wanted to play the ball deep too quickly, Viktoria defended that well.” , there was a lack of “a little more calm in our actions”. This was possibly also because strong professionals like Omar Marmoush or Knauff initially only sat on the bench and Mario Götze was out with back problems. In addition, the pitch was difficult to play on, reported Knauff, who was substituted on after just over an hour.
Ellyes Skhiri played a central role
But Frankfurt did what pragmatic teams should do in such duels where there is little to win but a lot to lose: They took the lead early (14th minute) and then defended with a lot of attention and hard work. And in both cases, former Cologne player Ellyes Skhiri played a central role. First, the Tunisian lurked at the far post after a corner, where he took the lead, and in the second half he prevented the equalizer when he stood in the way of a shot from Christoph Greger that would have ended up in the goal (67th). .
Makoto Hasebe, who is hardly used in the Bundesliga anymore, also played maturely and maturely as almost always, but they did allow a few chances against these self-confident Cologne players: “I might not have thought that it would be so difficult expected,” said substitute goalkeeper Jens Grahl, who represented Kevin Trapp, who was suffering from back problems. “But my defense and I managed to keep the zero, then everything was fine. In the end it’s the win that counts.”
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For the third time this season, Grahl proved to be a good substitute for Trapp, who could have played if necessary, but was given the task of taking care of his body this week. The highly stressed national goalkeeper “should have a normal training week, with intensive treatment, because we have three more difficult away games and he should be 100 percent fit there instead of moving from game to game,” explained Toppmöller. Trapp could be there again against Union Berlin this Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), and Götze is also expected back for the next chapter of this unusual series of four away games in a row for Eintracht Frankfurt began in Cologne.
Saturday’s trip to the capital will be followed by a game in the Conference League in Helsinki and a game at SV Werder in Bremen. “This is extremely challenging for all of us, especially for the players,” said Toppmöller. “Now it’s important to focus on regeneration, lots of sleep and good nutrition so that we can go into the games as fresh as possible.”
