Eintracht Frankfurt and the Europa League – they just go together.
The strong performance in the 2-1 (2-1) victory in the first leg of the round of 16 at Betis Sevilla opens up every chance for the Hessian Bundesliga club to make it into the quarter-finals and is already making fans dream of a similar high as in 2019 when Eintracht in the semi-finals was defeated by eventual winners Chelsea on penalties.
“Now we have a very good starting position for the second leg. I rate the win very highly. Because winning here is a huge success, even if we still have a lot of things that we can do better,” said Frankfurt’s sporting director Markus Krösche.
The strengths: Eintracht boldly played forwards in Seville without neglecting the defence. “We were very compact and gave the opponent few opportunities to play in the space. The way the boys pushed out and sprinted down was very intense. We did that very well,” praised coach Oliver Glasner.
Eintracht Frankfurt misses a higher victory
The weaknesses: The only shortcoming was the exploitation of chances. With more concentration and precision at the end, the Hessians could have scored three, four or even five goals.
Rafael Borré alone missed three top-class opportunities, including a hand penalty. So it remained with the Eintracht goals of Filip Kostic (14th minute) and Daichi Kamada. “When you see the chances we had, it’s a pity that it didn’t go better than 2-1,” said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
The starting position: This harbors certain dangers for the second leg, in which a draw is enough for Frankfurt to progress. However, with the away goals rule abolished before this season, a 1-0 win would force Sevilla to go into extra time. Glasner therefore announced: “We will play to win again.”