12.
18:58
Eintracht is wide awake and very intense in the duels, so the Belgians don’t come into the game at all. In addition, the Eagles probably don’t have any nerves in front of the opponent’s goal. The hosts are now challenged.
10.
6:55 p.m
Tooor for Eintracht Frankfurt, 0:2 by Saša Kalajdžić
What’s going on here? A corner of their own flies past the hosts’ ears, Lapoussin hits a hole in the air and Marmoush crosses the halfway line, then sends Chaïbi brilliantly into the box on the right. Instead of pulling away, he passes again with a lot of overview to the left to Kalajdžić, who is completely alone. The Austrian loads Lindner and easily slides in from eleven meters to the bottom right, it’s ice cold.
7.
18:53
Kalajdžić gets some space in the center and marches through the midfield. His subsequent low shot from 25 meters is no problem for Lindner.
6.
18:51
This is a fantastic start for the guests, who took the lead straight away with their first real attack. How can Saint-Gilloise respond to this?
4.
6:49 p.m
Yellow card for Tuta (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Near the touchline, Tuta is clearly too late against Amoura and clears him. For this he sees the early first yellow card.
3.
6:48 p.m
Tooor for Eintracht Frankfurt, 0-1 by Farès Chaïbi
Eintracht gets off to a lightning start. From the left, Nkounkou moves somewhat happily into the box and to the baseline. His return ends up with Kalajdžić, whose shot is blocked by Burgess. However, the leather comes to Chaïbi, who only has to push in from a few meters. Lindner has no chance.
1.
6:46 p.m
Then the ball starts rolling. Frankfurt kicked off.
1.
6:46 p.m
Game start
18:42
At this moment the teams enter the pitch together with referee Craig Pawson from England. The game can begin in a few minutes.
18:41
Incidentally, Frankfurt fans have been banned from entering the Anderlecht district where the game is taking place since Wednesday. The Belgian authorities had announced a very restrictive approach, which once again shows that it is not easy for away fans in Europe. Eintracht has reserved the right to take legal action retrospectively, as was the case in a similar case during the guest appearance in Marseille in 2018. Fans are only allowed to get to the stadium from a meeting point in the city along with shuttles, otherwise they risk being arrested by the police.
18:27
This is the first time these two teams have ever met, so we don’t have any comparable figures. However, the Belgians have already played against German teams in the past, and there were six duels in the Europa League last season. In the group phase, the duel with Union Berlin was evenly matched (1:0, 0:1), but in the round of 16, Les Unionistes clearly prevailed against the same opponent (3:3, 3:0). However, against Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals, their trip to Europe was over (1:1, 1:4).
6:14 p.m
The guests moved into these play-offs as second from a group with PAOK, Aberdeen and Helsinki. In the new year, however, Eintracht is a bit lost, after the surprising win against Leipzig, they only managed a three-pointer against Bochum, Cologne, Mainz and Darmstadt, all teams from the bottom third of the table. Frankfurt is in sixth place in the Bundesliga and should qualify for the Conference League again at least before the season. Maybe we can get back to our old form internationally; these competitions suit the Eagles, as we know from the past.
6:03 p.m
A favorite cannot necessarily be identified in this duel, as will be seen. Saint Gilloise is eight points ahead of first place in the domestic Jupiler Pro League, where they have only lost twice after 25 games, so Eintracht should be warned. The Belgians moved down one competition from the Europa League, finishing third ahead of the Austrians in a group with Liverpool, Toulouse and Linz. At home they beat the English.
5:46 p.m
To start, let’s take a look at the lineups. At Saint Gilloise, German coach Alexander Blessin is making three changes compared to the last competitive game. Former Frankfurter Lindner, Castro-Montes and Burgess come into the starting line-up for Moris in goal, Sykes and Terho. Sardiki is missing due to a yellow card suspension, Leysen and Rodríguez are not there due to injuries. Eckert Ayensa is a German striker on the bench. On the other hand, Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller is also rotating, but in four positions. Grahl, Max, Knauff and Larsson will be replaced by the recovered Trapp, Tuta, Nkounkou and Kalajdžić. Larsson is missing from the Bochum game due to his injury. Due to the personnel castling, it is once again a five-man chain, after four players played at the back at the weekend. Bahoya and van de Beek are not eligible to play in this competition and are therefore missing from the squad.
Welcome to the play-off first leg of the Europa Conference League, where Union Saint-Gilloise and Eintracht Frankfurt face each other. Kick-off at Lotto Park in Brussels is at 6:45 p.m.!