Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt is aggressive in the away game of the Europa League at the traditional English club West Ham United.
“We want to have these challenges. It will be a difficult game, it will need our best possible performance. We will play hard for victory in London,” announced coach Oliver Glasner before the semi-final first leg on Thursday (9 p.m. / RTL).
For himself it was “the biggest game of my career,” the coach continued: “But I hope there will be a bigger game afterwards.”
Eintracht will be without the suspended Evan Ndicka and Kristijan Jakic at the Olympic Stadium, but Djibril Sow should make his comeback from the start following his knee injury.
“You have that tingle and tension days before the game. We all know we have a very big opportunity to achieve something incredible,” Sow said. But that would require an “even better performance” than the 3-2 win in the second leg of the quarter-finals at FC Barcelona, Glasner added: “West Ham are well deserved among the last four. It will be a really hot duel.”
The 47-year-old explained that the Hammers were “very similar” to his own team in terms of their style of play: “They act very compactly, are very physically present, play quickly up front and are one of the most dangerous teams in set pieces.” Eintracht therefore go into the semi-finals “with self-confidence, but great respect”.