Eintracht Frankfurt lost the home game against SC Freiburg on Sunday 1-2 (0-1). Vincenzo Grifo (27th minute) and Nils Petersen (69th) scored for the Breisgauer. Filip Kostic’s goal (54th) was not enough for the Hessians to win a point.
1. Protest anger, fan anger, fan joy
Three events away from the game caused a stir on Sunday, both positive and negative. At the start of the game, two environmental activists crept onto the field and tied themselves to the Eintracht case with cable ties. The protest was directed against the use of fossil fuels, was harmless, but met with little approval from the noisy football supporters.
At least as strange: The active fan scene unrolled two banners that complained about the app and the Eintracht ticket system – and were directed against “influencers”. “Football takes place offline,” it said. The inclined DAZN viewer first had to ask Twitter what it was all about.
Last but not least – and the critical fans were also happy about this – the club and the city announced that the building permit for the stadium expansion had been granted. The arena is to have 11,000 additional standing places, so to speak, for even more offline football. Construction will start in late autumn.
2. Sow has to get up early
But that was it from Eintracht’s point of view with the good news that evening. The next bad one came in the 31st minute when Djibril Sow had to pull out of the game. The Swiss seems to have injured his knee without any opposition. An exact diagnosis will probably only be given during the course of Monday.
“According to the doctor, the knee was stable, but he was still in pain. I hope it’s nothing worse and that Djibi will be available on Thursday,” said coach Oliver Glasner at the press conference after the game and with a view to the European League – Second leg in Barcelona. With this hope he should not be alone in Frankfurt.
3. Eintracht is clearly better
But let’s finally get to the game itself, which used to be not a typical Eintracht game at all. SC Freiburg have a style of play similar to that of Hessen, don’t really like the ball that much and switch quickly after winning the ball. In the first half, neither team felt like having the game device. Opportunities should be created by pressing and counter-pressing. After the 0:1 that changed a bit. Eintracht had to come and Freiburg let them do it.
As a result, the Hessians were actually the better team. So not just felt, but according to bundesliga.de based on pretty much all the key statistics: Frankfurt had more possession of the ball than their opponents. Frankfurt won more duels than the opponent. Frankfurt shot more often on goal than the opponent. Eintracht scored twice from offside (52′, 86′), once Ajdin Hrustic failed to hit the inside of the post (84′). “Frankfurt would have deserved at least a draw today,” even Freiburg coach Christian Streich had to admit. The only problem was that Eintracht only scored once regularly.
4. Freiburg makes a lot out of little
What Freiburg did better than the home side was formulated by Kevin Trapp after the game: “Freiburg scored two goals out of nothing, they were really efficient.” That wasn’t quite true, after all, the Breisgauer had four shots on goal in the class book, but it really only became really dangerous twice. And Kevin Trapp then had to get the ball out of the goal twice.
“It’s a very bitter defeat,” said coach Oliver Glasner, who, however, tried to emphasize the positive. “I saw a lot, which was absolutely fine. That was the first thing we lost again after seven games without defeat.” But it could possibly have been the decisive defeat in the battle for Europe.
5. Was that it with Europe?
With a win against Freiburg, Eintracht could have reduced the gap to the European Cup places a good bit. But Eintracht is still five points short of sixth place in the table, which is enough for the Conference League. Fifth place in the Europa League, which the SCF occupies, is now nine points away – with five games left. “Today was a decisive game. Of course the gap is enormous now,” said a contrite Trapp afterwards. “But we still want to get the maximum out of it.”
Of course, Eintracht could best do that on Thursday. In the second leg at FC Barcelona, the Hessians can not only secure a place in the club’s annals with an away win in front of more than 90,000 fans, they would then also be in the semi-finals of the Europa League. And the winner of the competition, just to remind you, will play in Europe again next season. In the Champions League.
Source: HR