The dream of magical Euro nights is alive: Eintracht Frankfurt has achieved its minimum goal on the international stage even without striker Randal Kolo Muani.
The Hessians defeated the Bulgarian outsider Levski Sofia in the second leg of the play-offs with a lot of effort 2-0 (0-0) and thus moved into the still young Conference League for the first time in the club’s history. The first leg ended 1-1 after a goal from Kolo Muani and a late equaliser.
Jessic Ngankam (79′) and Ellyes Skhiri (86′) scored for the 2022 Europa League champions, with the group stage draw taking place on Friday.
“I’m happy that I was able to help the team,” said Ngankam on RTL. He doesn’t have a dream opponent: “It doesn’t matter, we’ll take any challenge.”
Kolo Muani went on strike on Wednesday to force a move to Paris St. Germain. One day before the transfer window closed, he “really couldn’t say whether the attacker would stay. You have to see what happens until then,” said sports director Markus Krösche before the kick-off on RTL.
The fuss about Kolo Muani was “not easy for the group,” added coach Dino Toppmöller, and urged: “We have to ignore everything else, accept the resistance, accept the challenge and move into the group phase with all our might.” Omar Marmoush started up front for the top attacker who was in Paris, while Fares Chaibi, brought in midweek as a replacement for Jesper Lindström (Naples), was not registered for the play-offs.
In front of 46,000 spectators, Eintracht immediately took control of the game, unlike in the first duel. There were repeated breakthroughs on the right side, especially over the hard-working Aurelio Buta, but the crosses in the penalty area were completely absent. Sofia was deep at the back with a back five and lurked through his three Brazilian attackers for a counterattack.
After the break, the SGE acted a little more precisely in the last third and now cracked the massive defensive bar a little more often. Mario Götze failed from the crowd by goalkeeper Plamen Andrejew, Junior Dina Ebimbe (54th) aimed past the far corner from a tight angle. Lewski was now barely able to relieve the pressure, substitute Ngankam (74th) missed a huge chance from five meters free-standing – a little later he did better after Götze’s template.