The dream of advancing in the Champions League is over. Eintracht Frankfurt says goodbye to any hope of the playoffs with a disgraceful performance in the 2:3 (1:1) draw at Qarabag Agdam. The goals from Can Uzun (10th minute) and Fares Chaibi from a penalty kick (78th) weren’t even enough for a point.
Whoever becomes the new head coach at Eintracht after Dino Toppmöller’s dismissal will have already been aware that there is a lot of work ahead of him. Nevertheless, the appearance in the Azerbaijani capital Baku was further evidence of this and also showed how much the Frankfurt team’s self-confidence has suffered. And that nothing has changed under the interim solution Dennis Schmitt.
Uzun is like that Lightning residue out of
And when it comes to defensive weakness, the previous coach of the second representative, with whom he was relegated from the Regionalliga to the Hessenliga last summer, apparently wasn’t able to achieve much, as quickly became apparent. Shortly after the kick-off, Qarabag played his way through the Frankfurt defense relatively unchallenged, crossed from the left side, Kaua Santos first held strong against Leandro Andrade, but then Camilo Duran pushed a shot from a few meters into the empty goal (4th).
Even beyond this goal, the guests’ body language was questionable, but at least they recovered after conceding the goal. And that was rewarded when Ritsu Doan first lost the ball in the opponent’s penalty area, but Uzun got it back straight away and shot into the goal with his left foot from 15 meters through the legs of his opponent (10th).
Game with a lot of idle time
After that, the game had a lot of idleness before Qarabag, despite the impression that the opponent wasn’t too dangerous, went on the offensive in the last ten minutes of the first half and put Eintracht under real pressure.
With a bit of luck and a strong reaction to a deflected shot from Duran, Santos was able to save the draw (37′), then Andrade shot from twelve meters just over the goal of the SGE keeper (40′), who was still his team’s best player.
Penalty situations cause sudden hecticness
The first half had a bit of entertainment value, especially thanks to Qarabag, but because the hosts weren’t so good with the ball after the break, the score dropped to zero – until the 75th minute. Qarabag called for a penalty after Robin Koch’s intervention, but didn’t get it and a minute later the whistle was blown in the other penalty area. Ansgar Knauff went down after a check and Chaibi had the chance to shoot his team from the point towards victory.
The Algerian, who had just returned from the Africa Cup, solved this task extremely confidently, Frankfurt suddenly led without having done much to change it (78th). But that only lasted two minutes, because the Azerbaijanis combined again on their left side, and after a cross pass, Duran pushed the ball over the line from three meters to quickly equalize (80th).
Frankfurt can make up for the knockout round
Eintracht desperately needed another goal to maintain their chance of making the playoffs, but after a few exciting minutes nothing worked – that didn’t change until the final whistle. Instead there was even the next bad blow in the neck, in the 95th minute Bahlul Mustafazada caused huge celebrations for Qarabag and the next defeat for Eintracht, who were finally eliminated from the Champions League with just four points.
There was no progress at all after the Toppmöller exit, now sports director Markus Krösche has to install a new head coach as quickly as possible (there are rumors about Marco Rose, for example) so that he can turn things around. At best, it will happen on Saturday in the Bundesliga against TSG Hoffenheim (3:30 p.m.), and at the end of the group phase Frankfurt will say goodbye to the Champions League with the game against Tottenham Hotspur (Wednesday, 9 p.m.).
