It’s tingling at Eintracht Frankfurt. This can be felt in London one day before the semi-final first leg on Thursday (April 28th, 2022) from 9 p.m. in the hr-iNFO audio stream. Two games against West Ham United, a good result and the Hessians, it’s still hard to believe, can actually play for the Europa League title in Seville. There is no more restraint, from now on only the big goal counts.
“You started playing football for games like this. No player needs extra motivation for that,” stressed Djibril Sow before the game in the former London Olympic Stadium. “We have a chance to achieve something incredible this year.”
A semi-final exit is definitely not planned for Eintracht. The problem with this: The opponent, who is seventh in the Premier League table, is uncomfortable, really, really uncomfortable. “West Ham are a dangerous and physical team,” said coach Oliver Glasner of the Hammers. “They will try to put us under pressure in their stadium and come into the game with high intensity.” His short conclusion: “It will be crisp.”
“West Ham are uncomfortable, but so are we”
The Eintracht plan against the team of coach David Moyes: counteract. Just as high intensity, just as much pressure, just as physical and just as dangerous. “The players have very similar tasks to fulfill tomorrow,” said Glasner. “West Ham are uncomfortable, but we’re also very uncomfortable to play with.” And Sow is already announcing: “We can do a game like that too.” The Frankfurters have proven more than once in this Europa League season that these are not empty words. The great Barcelona can tell about it.
As in Barcelona, Glasner also has to make changes to his successful team in London. Evan N’Dicka and Kristijan Jakic are both suspended and can only keep their fingers crossed from the stands in London. While Jakic is likely to be replaced by returnee Sow, things look more complicated for N’Dicka. Glasner could put Makoto Hasebe in the libero position and order Martin Hinteregger to the left, or he could play Almamy Touré in the N’Dicka position. However, both variants also carry a risk.
Who replaces N’Dicka?
If Hinteregger plays on the left, he is missing in the center to go into the infight with West Ham striker Michail Antonio. If Touré plays, the build-up play shouldn’t run too smoothly with a right-footed player in the N’Dicka position. Glasner has to make a decision, but didn’t want to give any concrete insight into his considerations on Wednesday. He only revealed: “We have dealt intensively with West Ham and have trained one or the other tactically.”
When studying opponents on Sunday, when West Ham narrowly lost to Chelsea, Glasner was only able to take something with him. Moyes rested half a dozen regulars and barely looked at the cards. But what Glasner recognized was: “West Ham are very compact. It also took Chelsea a long time to create chances. They are physically very strong and very dangerous from set pieces.”
Glasner: “We will play to win”
But what the game against Chelsea also showed: West Ham takes unity really seriously. And is just as motivated to move into the final as the Hessians. “It’s going to be a really hot duel,” Glasner concluded his analysis. And best of all it will be a duel, after the end of which Eintracht has come another step closer to the dream of “creating something unbelievable”. In any case, Glasner’s goal for this game fits in perfectly with this wish: “We will play to win.”
Source: HR