Eintracht Frankfurt’s chances of reaching the knockout rounds in the Champions League are dwindling – there was a massive 0-3 defeat against Atalanta Bergamo, everything was decided within five minutes.
Ademola Lookman gave Bergamaschi a 1-0 lead in the 60th minute. Two minutes later, Éderson added the second goal before everything was decided by Charles De Ketelaere (65th) another three minutes later.
Atalanta Bergamo traveled to the Main in complete crisis mode. In Serie A, “La Dea” has now been waiting for a win for eight games, and the change of coach to Raffaele Palladino has not yet brought about a turnaround: the last time Palladino made his debut was a 1-3 defeat against Naples.
Three chances missed in five minutes
This was also noticeable in Frankfurt at first: Atalanta started unsettled, after a quarter of an hour Frankfurt should have been clearly in the lead. But first Jonathan Burkardt failed with a shot from the turn past Atalanta keeper Marco Carnesecchi (10th), shortly afterwards Farès Chaïbi missed after perfect preparatory work by Nnamdi Collins. Eintracht remained in control, but Robin Koch also headed the ball in from a cross from Ritsu Doan, which was too unplaced and without the final consequence (14th).
Only then did the guests stabilize and discover the offensive. Charles De Ketelaere gave the first signal with an ultimately harmless 20-meter shot, but then things became really dangerous: keeper Michael Zetterer had to save the post twice within a few seconds
Double aluminum prevents residue
First, ex-Leipzig player Ademola Lookman slammed the ball onto the aluminum with a shot, and in the next attack, Gianluca Scamacca reacted quickest and also failed at the right post. Eintracht were impressed, increasingly lost their confidence in the build-up and were no longer as present in the midfield.
By the break, Bergamo had turned the game around in all important statistics: 55 percent of ball possession, 54 percent of duels won and 8:5 shots on goal – Dino Toppmöller’s team had given up control of the game completely without necessity.
Burkardt injured and conceded three goals
After the change, Frankfurt initially seemed a little more stable again, but that didn’t last long: from the 55th minute onwards, the really bad news started to pile up. First, Burkardt injured his calf when landing after a header and had to be substituted – then the bell rang again.
First De Ketelaere set up Lookman for the visitors’ deserved lead with a sensitive chip ball, then Éderson scored the second goal after a one-two with Lookman. The collective passivity of the Eintracht defense was already frightening when they conceded these two goals, but this was topped at 0:3: Koch and Théate only watched as Scamacca first failed to hit the crossbar and then De Ketelaere pushed the rebound over the line.
Wolfsburg is waiting in the Bundesliga
At least: Eintracht didn’t completely fall apart after that, but they didn’t get their foot in the door in any phase: Frankfurt lost more than 69 percent of the duels on their own pitch, the shots on goal were 9:21 at the final whistle – the defeat for the Frankfurt team, who were stagnating with four points from five games, was also completely okay.
Eintracht continues in the Bundesliga on Sunday at home against VfL Wolfsburg (5.30 p.m., live in the radio report on the Sportschau).