That was a size too big for the Europa League winner: Eintracht Frankfurt lost the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League against a great SSC Napoli and is on the verge of being eliminated. Coach Glasner is looking for solutions, but is impressed and (still) at a loss.
The fans of Eintracht Frankfurt thundered their booming “Black and white like snow” at the SSC Napoli footballers on Tuesday evening, they ignited tons of pyrotechnics and shot rockets into the sky. What a fiery welcome for what is perhaps the strongest (form) team in Europe at the moment. And the fire of the ranks got caught in the legs of the Frankfurt footballers. 15 minutes they put the Italians under pressure, extorted balls and stormed forward. Randal Kolo Muani missed a good first chance after five minutes. Naples was warned, Eintracht ready for a big night. But it ended with a 0:2 (0:1) defeat and the imminent end of the last sixteen of the Champions League.
When this game was tilted and why, that’s difficult to grasp. But by the 34th minute at the latest, the Italians had pulled things on their side on the pitch. Hirving Lozano broke through the right flank and slammed the ball against the post. The rebound landed at Buta, who hesitated to clear the situation and finally hit the knee of the rushing Victor Osimhen in the penalty area – penalty. It was the start of wild minutes in the Waldstadion, wild minutes between euphoria and disillusionment. Kevin Trapp snatched the penalty from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (36th) with an outstanding save.
The momentum was back at Eintracht, actually. But only four minutes later it was torn to shreds again. Mario Götze makes a sloppy pass on the sidelines and seconds later it’s 0:1. Lozano gets the ball in full sprint and crosses it sharply in the middle, on the far post, where Osimhen cleverly lurks and does not run offside – goal. Almost the same game less than two minutes later, but this time Osimhen is not quite as adept at timing and is just inside the forbidden zone. Eintracht threatened to gamble away everything within eight minutes, but they saved themselves during the break.
But whatever was decided in the dressing room, the plan didn’t work out and after the crystal-clear red card against Kolo Muani (59th) could no longer be implemented anyway. The last outstanding Frenchman goes into a duel with André Zambo Anguissa with the open sole and hits him in the ankle. Six minutes later, Napoli buried the game. Kvaratskhelia locks in a pass from deep and then heels it down for Giovanni di Lorenzo, who comes in close and sinks the ball well from 15 yards out with a low shot in the bottom left corner. Trapp has no chance, in the 56th minute he kept his team in the game with a top save against the very conspicuous Kvaratskhelia. The stadium was sober, the roar gone.
“Today it hurts. We’re brutally disappointed. But we won’t move into the Maradona Stadium as tourists with white flags,” coach Oliver Glasner tried to show a gentle form of optimism. However, he also admitted that at the moment he can’t think of much to find “what we need to win in the second leg. How mercilessly Naples exploited the mistakes was “impressive”.
In midfield, the men’s everywhere ruled Stanislav Lobotka, Piotr Zieli?ski and Anguissa at will. No space they did not condense. And on top of that the outstanding chip balls in the run of the fast and technically strong Kvaratskhelia, Lozano or Osimhen. The Slovak-Polish-Cameroonian trio is a perfectly functioning engine room. The heart of this team, which develops its stars itself, for which so much seems possible this season. Not only in the domestic league, where they are already 15 points ahead of the competition. First pursuer is Inter Milan.
And yet Eintracht will not “bury their heads between their knees or in the sand” before the second leg on March 15 in Naples, Glasner admitted. The 0: 2 is a “dangerous result”, in which the Hessians could quickly pull the momentum on their side with a goal, said the Austrian: “We will try with everything we have.” But it doesn’t need “a miracle”, said sporting director Markus Krösche: “In the second leg we’ll try to turn things around. I’m convinced of our boys.” Especially hard for Eintracht, in addition to the 0: 2 to be made up: the absence of Kolo Muani. “It’s very bitter for him and for us. We’ll build him up again,” said Glasner. Trapp described the decision as “very, very hard.”
Götze had complained to the referee on the lawn and had been warned for it. “In the end you have to assess the whole situation. It was an offensive move by Kolo. The other player also tackles the ball. Seconds make the difference.” Eintracht had to deal with this bitter evening first, said Götze. But he didn’t want to write his team off just yet. “We know that anything is possible away from home. Napoli scored two goals for us, why shouldn’t we do it there?”
