Confident victory in the second leg: Eintracht Frankfurt Women move into the Champions League

With a clear win in the second leg at Sparta Prague, the Eintracht Frankfurt footballers made it into the group stage of the Champions League.

The journey through Europe is just now really starting. The Eintracht footballers won the qualifying second leg at Sparta Prague 3-0 (3-0) on Wednesday evening. This means that Frankfurt will move into the group stage of the Champions League. Barbara Dunst scored a hat trick with three powerful goals in the first half (18th, 33rd, 43rd).

To the confident 5-0 win in the first leg To get the team across the finish line, Frankfurt coach Niko Arnautis made a few changes to the starting eleven, as announced. These all affected the right side: Nadine Riesen, Lisanne Gräwe and Carlotta Wamser started instead of Pia-Sophie Wolter, Nicole Anyomi and Géraldine Reuteler, who initially sat on the bench.

Changes from Arnautis work out

These changes quickly had an effect: in the 18th minute, Riesen penetrated the Prague penalty area strongly from the right, brought the ball from the baseline into the back of the defense and there Dunst sank it for an early 1-0 lead.

From then on, the Frankfurt women, who had already been brimming with self-confidence, took complete control of the game and tied the Czechs into their own half. It was Verena Hanshow who made the 1,500 spectators roar with a powerful long-range save in the 29th minute, but Prague goalkeeper Sydney Schneider was able to fend off the shot.

Dunst completes the hat trick

Four minutes later there was nothing left for them to hold on to: Eintracht took advantage of a mistake in midfield and quickly switched through Lara Prasnikar and Dunst, who was then able to score their second goal of the evening (33′). It was precisely this Frankfurt duo that made the difference in this team in the 43rd minute, when Dunst completed her hat trick from eleven meters and made it 3-0 at the break.

In the second half, Eintracht picked up where they left off: lots of possession and attacking football. There were also a few shots from the second row, such as from substitute Shekiera Martinez in the 68th minute.

Group stage draw on Friday

With the combined 8-0 lead behind them, the SGE visibly took off the pressure and went on a course to save energy. When referee Abigail Byrne whistled the game on time after 93 minutes, the Frankfurt players hugged each other with joy and celebrated in front of the over 100 fans from Hesse who had traveled with them.

The group stage of the Women’s Champions League starts in mid-November. Who Eintracht will face will be decided next Friday: the draw will take place from 1 p.m. Two days later (Sunday, 4 p.m.) the Frankfurt team will host the penultimate team from Duisburg in the league.