Last year’s finalist Eintracht Frankfurt failed to clear the second hurdle on their return to Berlin and reached the round of 16 of the DFB Cup against Bremen-Schreck Viktoria Köln despite a largely disappointing performance. The five-time cup winner won 2-0 (1-0) at sixth-place Viktoria Köln in the third division, but did no more than do the job according to the rules.
Ellyes Skhiri (14th) scored early for coach Dino Toppmöller’s team, which could now get off to a good start in their favorite competition, as so often happens: When Eintracht has survived the second round since 2015, it has always made it to at least the semi-finals, three times to the final and once (2018) on the title. Viktoria, who outplayed Werder 3-2 in round one, will have to wait for the first round of 16 in the club’s history. With his goal in the 90th minute, Ansgar Knauff destroyed Cologne’s last hopes of extra time and a possible further coup.
In front of 8,343 fans in the sold-out small stadium in the Höhenberg Sportpark, around half of whom were loud Frankfurters, Eintracht coach Toppmöller changed his starting eleven to six positions compared to the 3-3 draw against Dortmund on Sunday. National goalkeeper Kevin Trapp and Rio hero Mario Götze were not in the squad due to back problems.
Eintracht manages their leadership
“We should be as high as possible,” warned Toppmöller. And just like in the 7-0 win over regional league team Lok Leipzig in the first round, the Frankfurt team initially acted with great concentration. Skhiri took the lead early on in his old sporting home – the Tunisian was under contract with 1. FC Köln until the summer – after a corner.
Viktoria, whose coach Olaf Janßen played for Frankfurt for three years and was involved in the legendary relegation thriller in 1999, bravely resisted and had their best phase after around 30 minutes. Trapp representative Jens Grahl had to parry three times, Eintracht only did the bare minimum after taking the lead.
Even after the break, the second suit couldn’t make its mark, Jessic Ngankam was worn out at the front, the Norwegian Jens Petter Hauge on the left wing remained a disappointment in the Eintracht jersey, both of them called it a day after a good hour. But even with Omar Marmoush, who scored a double goal against Dortmund, Eintracht mostly acted harmlessly and Viktoria was lurking on the counterattack.