In the sixth minute, the von attacked for the first time Barca coach Xavi dreaded quick transition of the Eintracht: Djibril Sow won the ball in the center, the ball ran through Rafael Borré immediately to Jesper Lindström. The Sow, who had rushed forward with him, forgave his well-considered pass to the back of the defense too hastily despite a promising position. It seemed like one of the few chances the underdog would have to take to create a sensation.
Referee takes back penalty for Frankfurt
Barcelona built up with expansive full-backs; the Eintracht offensives Daichi Kamada and Lindström meanwhile moved more towards the center against the ball. So the center remained closed for the Spaniards and their well-known short passing game. In addition, defender Gerard Piqué had to leave the field due to injury in the 23rd minute, and Clément Lenglet came on for him.
Eintracht were closer to taking the lead than Barcelona at this stage. This was also the case in the 39th minute when Borré was brought down by Sergio Busquets in the penalty area. The referee initially pointed to a penalty, but then revised his decision after looking at the pictures because Busquets had played the ball beforehand. This ended a goalless first half, in which Eintracht was defensively stable, appeared unyielding in duels and advanced as one on counterattacks. Sometimes six Frankfurters cavorted in the opponent’s penalty area when the shots were scored. The appearance of Glasner’s eleven showed and encouraged courage.
Knauff with the dream goal after the break
Immediately after the break, she was rewarded with the 1-0 and a dream goal: Knauff was completely free after a corner on the sixteen, he took a rebound out of the air with his left and slammed the ball from 19 meters with his right outside instep into the right corner. And Eintracht kept pushing, just a minute later Lindström fired a shot just wide of the goal. “We get the UU-Uefa-Cup” the Frankfurt fans sang about the old name of the competition. At that point it was really not clear whether Eintracht would be the title favorite rather than the big Barcelona.
Frankfurt allowed little and was 15:3 after an hour of play. Barca boss Xavi responded with substitutions from Dembélé and de Jong. Five minutes later, these two prepared the equalizer from Torres, who cleverly fired into the far corner (66th). Until then, the Frankfurt Barcas had had the attack under control, but were simply not up to these rapid successions.
Tuta is sent off
In the 78th minute, Eintracht had to cope with the next shock when Tuta was rightly sent off with yellow-red. Glasner brought another defensive man with Almamy Touré. Outnumbered and with dwindling strength, the Frankfurters now defended themselves against the Barcelona attacks. The guests became more dangerous, but without really having any compelling opportunities. So the draw was more than fair from Eintracht’s point of view.
With the hosts, Hinteregger showed his inimitable bite in highlight games, Knauff reeled off an enormous amount of work both defensively and offensively beyond his goal – as did Kostic on the left (the Frankfurt “knauff tongs” grabbed). Sow also ordered the center strongly with his ball security. With this attitude and discipline, the Frankfurters also have chances of the sensation in Barcelona in a week.
Source: HR