Europa League: Eintracht Frankfurt wrestles Ajax

Eintracht Frankfurt finds the force on the offensive at Ajax Amsterdam and is rewarded with a deserved away success. After an early goal, the Hessen show one of the best performance of the year.

Eintracht Frankfurt can still. After the two bitter defeats Against Bayern Munich (0: 4) and Bayer Leverkusen (1: 4) On Thursday, the Hesse once again showed their notorious Europa League face and defeated Ajax Amsterdam 2-1 (1: 1) away.

Brian Brobbey had put the home side in the lead (10th), Hugo Larsson (33.) and Ellyes Skhiri (70th) for the significantly improved Frankfurters. In the second leg in the coming week, Eintracht is now sufficient for moving into the quarter -finals.

Eintracht finds the force again

The first half can be summarized with a single word: spectacular. After ten furious initial minutes from Ajax, in which Brobbey met the post (2nd) and once in the goal, Eintracht developed the almost lost force of past Omar Marmoush days. The Hessen took over the initiative, pressed early and actually presented the Amsterdam defense with major problems.

Driven by the outstanding Hugo Larsson and the very active Mario Götze, Eintracht always managed to appear dangerously in the Ajax penalty. Thanks to his pace, Ansgar Knauff kept breaking through on the right side, his counterpart on the left wing-Jean-Matteo Bahoya-finally justified his starting elf nomination. The Hesse, which appeared against Bavaria and Bayer, gained chance in the Johan-Cruyff-Arena Chance.

Larsson is rewarding Eintracht

Knauff (11th), Götze (13th), Bahoya (17th) and Arthur Theate (19th) initially failed from promising positions, but after less than half an hour, Larsson crowned his evening and rewarded the urge phase of Eintracht with the equalization. That his shot from around 20 meters was still deflected by Brobbey: free of charge. The gate was always deserved, which was not least confirmed by the goal shot statistics at the break: Eintracht won this discipline 14: 5. Impressive.

The only problem: the chain of four, which had to get by without the battered defense chief Robin Koch, wiggled them again and again. The Skhiri and Kevin Trapp, which are clearly too hesitant, helped in the Amsterdam lead goal through the ex-Leipzig Brobbey. In the period that followed, too, Tuta, Namdi Collins and Trapp repeatedly made minor uncertainties. Hui at the front, Pfui at the back, overall, Eintracht showed one of the best appearances of this year until the break.

Trapp on the spot, then Knauff runs

And then? Overall, things went much calmer, at least at the playing complex there was not much changed. Eintracht remained dangerous and vulnerable in the attack, only the frequency of the pulse -increasing actions decreased significantly. On the side of the home side, Brobbey initially failed on the well -positioned Trapp (52nd), almost in return, Hugo Ekitiké narrowly missed the Frankfurt leadership (53.) after beautiful preparatory work by Knauff.

In the period that followed, the game rippled more and more, Ajax did not incorporate much, the Hesse took back and seemed increasingly satisfied with the result. So take a draw with you and build on the home advantage in the coming week? Not up! After a long ball on Knauff, he prevailed on the right with full physical effort, played out his pace and then put it out of Skhiri. The Tunisian kept his foot down and brought Eintracht a big step closer to the quarter -finals with his goal.

Tremors in the final phase

In the final phase, Eintracht then came under a lot of pressure, Ajax pushed for the equalization and laced the Hesse on his own penalty area for minutes. The team of coach Dino Toppmöller, who almost no relief was achieved, bravely threw himself into all attempts at attack and ultimately forced the Dutch into their knees.

The decision to move into the quarter -finals will be made in Frankfurt in the second leg next Thursday (6.45 p.m.). Eintracht-Youngster Collins will then be missing according to his third yellow card as a Jordan Henderson.