Bundesliga: Eintracht Frankfurt is in Champions League form against Werder Bremen

Status: 02/18/2023 8:24 p.m

Three days before the round of 16 in the Champions League, Eintracht Frankfurt celebrated a comfortable 2-0 (1-0) win against Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. The SSC Napoli can come.

It was the duel between the top scorers in the league: the top scorer Randal Kolo Muani (nine goals, 13 assists) against the top scorer Niclas Füllkrug (13 goals). But the focus of the game between Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen was initially another player: Marco Friedl.

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Strong unity gets opposing help

The Werder captain initially prevented the Frankfurt lead at the last moment. Jesper Lindström broke through on the left after a back-heel trick by Kolo Muani and played to Ansgar Knauff, whose shot from close range Friedl was just able to prevent (3rd minute).

A little later, the 24-year-old was also there when Srdjan Jakic put the ball across after a free-kick cross from Philipp Max – in this case, however, his attempt at clearance ended up in his own goal (8th).

The Frankfurt lead was well deserved, Eintracht dominated the game. Daichi Kamada should have increased shortly after a dream pass from Mario Götze, but the Japanese lost his balance before he could score and missed the goal by a wide margin (12′).

However, coach Oliver Glasner’s team left the impression from the start that they had coped well with the painful 0: 3 from the previous week at 1. FC Köln – and four days before the first leg in the Champions League round of 16 against SSC Naples (Tuesday , February 21, 2023 at 9 p.m. in the live ticker at sportschau.de) to be in top form again.

Bremen’s offensive misses everything

From then on, Eintracht largely left the game to the opponent and relied on counterattacks via the fast Kolo Muani and Lindström. Frankfurt mostly came from the left side, Max prepared the next good opportunity with a cross to Knauff, whose header was too unplaced (28th). Shortly before the half-time break, Lindström missed another chance to make it 2-0 (45+2) after a one-two with Max.

And Werder? Nothing went offensively for the guests, in the first round there was not a single Bremen shot on goal. Füllkrug, who has already scored three times this year, also had Frankfurt under control. Werder had more possession, but also because Eintracht allowed it in safe areas.

Kolo Muani increases for sovereign Frankfurt

That’s how the second half started – and Frankfurt struck again with fast attacks from their strong defense. The outstanding Max prevailed again on the left and crossed perfectly to Kolo Muani. Jiri Pavlenka was able to fend off his header, but Knauff followed suit and played across to the top Frankfurt striker, who scored his tenth goal of the season (52′).

On the one hand it was impressive how Frankfurt managed this lead, but on the other hand it was worrying how harmless Bremen’s efforts were to turn it around. For the entire duration of the game, Eintracht’s goal was not even remotely endangered.

And because the hosts were already saving energy for their big task against Napoli on Tuesday, hardly anything happened in the game in general. Frankfurt, who still had a few good chances to make it 3-0, came in handy, so the home win against Werder was safe.

Frankfurt also in the Bundesliga with strong opponents

In the Bundesliga, after the aforementioned Champions League round of 16, Frankfurt has to go to Leipzig for the top game (Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.). Bremen hosts VfL Bochum at the same time.

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