Eintracht Frankfurt is feverishly looking for the positives of a 2-0 defeat in the Champions League and only finds slogans to persevere.
Frankfurt am Main – The gentleman on the microphone provided the first help to help the Frankfurt skyrocketers who had fallen on their noses, while the steaming players wrapped themselves in the warm blanket of chants from the famous north-west curve. Stadium announcer Daniel Wolf vociferously recalled a game 29 years ago that nothing was lost even after the 2-0 defeat, “we also won in Naples back then” and it was enough to get through to the next round. Unfortunately, the good man forgot three things in his historical reference: Back then, in 1994, Eintracht Frankfurt had already won the first leg 1-0, this time, secondly, even this result would not be enough, and thirdly, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that that this strong opponent from Naples could still take the quarter-finals in the Champions League.
In addition, Società Sportiva Calcio from Napoli made a good, almost wonderful impression. This team, led by veteran Luciano Spalletti, has legitimate ambitions to win the handle pot in this condition. Their performance in the Frankfurt city forest was too impressive, too perfect for Eintracht Frankfurt to be able to travel to the foot of Vesuvius after the lesson with dimmed hopes, in just under three weeks.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s sports director enthusiastic – from the opponent
Afterwards, sports director Markus Krösche was almost enthusiastic about the Italians, he packed his enthusiasm for Bella Italia into a single sentence, which he repeated five or six times in his usual objective analysis: “Naples have a really good team.”
This undisputed quality of the opponent, who has a squad value twice as high as that of Hesse, leads Serie A all by himself with 15 points and has just lost two of the last 31 games, of course also revealed how far Eintracht Frankfurt is from this level is. That’s not a reproach: at some point this brave and courageous team has just reached the end of the road and they’ve reached their limit, limits can’t be pushed indefinitely. The SSC Napoli is now such a wall that – by human standards – can no longer be overcome. Also because this club from southern Italy is driven by at least the same hunger for success as Eintracht – the Neapolitans won the last major title, Diego Armando Maradona was still playing there, it was 1990, the Scudetto. And that’s why, possibly unlike FC Barcelona last year, they take the international competition seriously, devilishly seriously.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Many “own mistakes”
Irrespective of this, what has been achieved from Frankfurt’s point of view cannot be overestimated. Everything should have been right for a surprise that evening, but the opposite was the case. Coach Oliver Glasner attested that his team made many “own mistakes”, mistakes that helped the opponent after a good initial phase and “robbed them of their self-confidence”. For example, the sometimes unnecessary corners (Aurelio Buta), the sleepy behavior before the missed penalty (Buta again), unusual bad passes (Mario Götze) or the impetuous use of the red card (Randal Kolo Muani). Mistakes, even small ones, which are decisive at this level and are punished, especially when the opposing side, an ensemble playing from a single source, had made practically not a single one, his team had played no “palla banali”, as Spalletti praised, none banal ball. Halfway dangerous in front of the goal, the hopelessly inferior hosts came twice, early through Kolo Muani, late through Daichi Kamada, that was far too little.
Of course, the Frankfurt entourage tried all kinds of perseverance slogans afterwards. “We believe in it,” said the formidable goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, in the fact that “we can still turn things around” (Krösche). Oliver Glasner promised that he would never “move into the Maradona Stadium as a tourist with a white flag” and that he would neither “bend his knees” nor “bury his head in the sand”. What else should they say? For example, that they send the A youth due to a lack of prospects?
But of course Glasner also saw the worlds that lay between the two teams. “Today I can’t think of much to find exactly what we need in the second leg to win.” Especially since Eintracht has to score at least two goals to even come back, “one or two more than planned was”, as Krösche said almost humorously. A two-goal lead, Glasner whistled in the dark forest, looks comfortable, but it is still “a dangerous result” and with a goal, Eintracht could win the momentum in Naples.
Glasner calls for more “carefulness when owning the ball”
However, the football miracle on March 15 will have to happen without the very best, without the red-banned Kolo Muani, the Frankfurt life insurance company, who has managed 15 goals and 15 assists in all 31 competitive games so far. His dismissal in the 58th minute was tough but justifiable under the rules. It was the Frenchman’s second in his first year at Eintracht, the first time he had tried to fix a jumped ball with a long leg. In the game he won 2-0 at home against Union Berlin, he saw a yellow card for his attack, but because it was his second he had to take a shower. Without him, of course, the Frankfurters are deprived of their sharpest weapon. To a large extent they are even dependent on Kolo Muani, the strikers at the back, Rafael Borré, Lucas Alario, Faride Alidou cannot remotely compensate for the loss of the best in the premier class. The runner-up, Glasner recommended, always looking for the positive, should now “exert himself with all his might in the Bundesliga”.
This game also revealed where “we have a need for development”, as Krösche put it. What can Eintracht Frankfurt learn from this game? Glasner means avoiding simple ball losses, he means the remaining protection to the rear, he means “carefulness when owning the ball” and complains about the harmlessness of offensive standards, for that “we get the Nobel Peace Prize”. Eintracht proved that they are willing to learn from bitter experience, for example after the first premier class game, a 0-3 defeat against Sporting Lisbon. With a win in the second leg, she secured the round of 16. Could this also work in Italian?
If the learning curve in the second leg is so high “that we can win with a two-goal difference,” said Glasner, “I’ll take off all my hats.” (Thomas Kilchenstein, Ingo Durstewitz)
