Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – Oliver Glasner remained completely relaxed after the fourth home defeat in a row. The Eintracht Frankfurt coach did not see the 1-0 (0-0) against record champions and league leaders FC Bayern Munich as another setback in the Bundesliga, but as a turning point. “This defeat doesn’t give me sleepless nights. The performance, the passion and the unity were much better than in the weeks before,” said the Austrian. “I have a feeling we’ve bottomed out. If a lot of things were going wrong, we would have gone under today – and we definitely aren’t.”
In fact, the Hessians defended themselves against the overwhelming Bavarians on Saturday evening in front of 25,000 fans. And who knows how the game would have gone if Filip Kostic had converted Eintracht’s first and only big chance to take an early lead in the 7th minute. The Frankfurt team has been waiting for a goal for 315 minutes. “We’re just not able to score goals at the moment,” Glasner said.
His team withstood the constant pressure from Munich well into the second half, then national player Leroy Sané (71st), who had just been substituted on, destroyed the home side’s faint hopes of at least one point. “We have shown that it is difficult to play well. But we have to play our chances better and work our way back up,” said the strong Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
With 31 points, the Frankfurters remain in no man’s land in the table. The international starting places are increasingly falling out of sight. Sports director Markus Krösche immediately nipped a quality debate in the bud. “It’s a development issue. At the moment we’re playing too hastily in certain situations, we lack determination, especially towards the end. We have to work on that because we’ve done it better in the past,” said Krösche. “But that’s not a quality issue.”
Glasner gave his protégés two days off after the intense 90 minutes. “I’m very happy with the performance of the team. We made it very difficult for Bayern and implemented the tactical guidelines very well. There were many situations that we defended well,” summed up the 47-year-old.
A tight program awaits Eintracht before the international break. In the league, the tasks are at Hertha BSC, against VfL Bochum and at RB Leipzig. In addition, there are the two duels with the Spanish table third Betis Sevilla in the round of 16 of the Europa League. “These will be intensive weeks. But I have no concerns about the boys. They will go along with it.”
There is no doubt about that. But there must also be points again. “We mustn’t despair and think too much, we have to keep working and believing,” Trapp said. His wish for the next games: “In the first half of the season we won in Munich, then lost to Hertha and Bochum. Hopefully it will be the other way around this time.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220226-99-295212/3
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