Eintracht Frankfurt is thrown out of the Conference League against Saint-Gilloise

Eintracht Frankfurt’s European Cup journey is over. After the draw in the first leg, the Hessians lost at home against Union Saint-Gilloise and had to give up in the play-offs.

Eintracht Frankfurt was eliminated from the Conference League on Thursday evening. The Hessians lost the second leg in the first knockout round against Union Saint-Gilloise 1:2 (0:0). Cameron Puertas (47th) and Dennis Eckert Ayensa (80th) scored for the guests. Junior Dina Ebimbe’s connection came too late (87th). The first leg in Belgium ended 2-2 last week.

“That was the worst game we have played so far. The disappointment is huge,” said the sports director after the game. “Today was not Eintracht Frankfurt international and not what we imagine.” However, coach Dino Toppmöller supported Krösche. Although the game was a step backwards in development, Toppmöller did a “good job” overall.

A poor first half

Eintracht took things a little calmer compared to the first leg. While the Hessians had already led 2-0 after ten minutes in Belgium, they only had two chances in the first half in Frankfurt – both through Farès Chaibi.

His supposed 1-0 was rightly disallowed due to offside (17th). Union goalkeeper Anthony Moris barely fished his great free kick out of the corner in the 45th minute. Saint-Gilloise at least came to a dangerous conclusion. Koki Machida shot from the second row, Kevin Trapp was there (11th).

It wasn’t offensive fireworks that the two teams set off. Nobody wanted to make the first mistake and take too much risk. The Belgians tried their usual short passing game, which Eintracht knew how to stop well. The Hessians, on the other hand, repeatedly looked for depth on the wings, but the final pass into the center usually failed to reach the goal. The 0-0 at half time: It was completely fine.

Eintracht is the first to fail

Eintracht made their first mistake at the start of the second half. Buta played a bad pass in his own half, Elamine Amoura moved into the penalty area and cleverly passed it back to Puertas. The Swiss shot from 17 meters and scored to give the visitors a 1-0 lead (47th). Amoura almost made it 2-0, but was stopped by Robin Koch with a monster tackle in the penalty area (60th).

There was practically nothing to be seen offensively from Eintracht. Marmoush sent a sign of life in the 61st minute after a cross from Ansgar Knauff. But his direct shot went just wide of the goal. Toppmöller reacted and brought in new forces with Dina Ebimbe and Hugo Ekitiké to bring the attack into shape.

Nkounkou has the equalizer on his head

However, the Hessians didn’t show anything more than good approaches on the wings. In contrast to Saint-Gilloise, which now had plenty of space to counterattack. Puertas almost scored a brace again after Amoura was put down. Trapp kept the SGE in the game (70th).

Niels Nkounkou then had a great chance to equalize. Moris was just able to clear his powerful header from eight meters for a corner (77′). After a corner on the other side, Eckert Ayensa put the lid on the game with his goal from a tight angle (80′). Although there was hope again after Dina Ebimbe’s header goal (87th), the happy ending was denied to the Hessians, who were generally too harmless.