The magic returned to Frankfurt’s Waldstadion in the 3:1 win against Olympiakos Piraeus. The team’s biting, attractive style of play was reminiscent of the great European Cup nights of years gone by, and in the stands the atmosphere at least approached the atmospheric times before the Corona pandemic broke out.
As is well known, heaven and hell are often close together in football. Frankfurt has also been singing a song about this for decades – keyword moody diva. Since Thursday evening, it has been enriched by one more verse. Only five days after their worst performance of the season against Hertha BSC (1:2), Eintracht showed their best performance of the season. The team played as if from a single mould, passionate, courageous, variable and creative.
Even Olympiakos coach Pedro Martins had to admit afterwards: “We studied the opponent very intensively and knew what their strengths were. But we did not manage to eliminate these strengths. Eintracht Frankfurt was much stronger than us, they forced us to stand so deep. That was not our intention. We didn’t have the possession we had hoped for and were subjected to enormous pressure.” Such praise from the opponent’s mouth tastes particularly good. Especially as Martins had not exaggerated.
Sometimes you have to scold your own kids a bit.
GLASNER
His opposite number Oliver Glasner had done everything right in the days after the desolate performance against Hertha. First he relied on a thunderbolt, then on harmony. “The coach got a bit louder on Sunday,” reports captain Sebastian Rode, who celebrated his comeback in the final phase after a lengthy injury break (knee surgery). Glasner confirms this: “We clearly addressed what we didn’t like. The words were a bit louder. Maybe that’s like at home, sometimes you have to scold your own children a bit. I always hate to do that, but sometimes it’s necessary. Still, it’s important to give them a hug the next day,” the coach explains.
He cancelled the player substitution training on Sunday without further ado. After the detailed match analysis, he said to the players: “So, now you all go for a run together and talk about it. After the Monday off, the training order was very simple: “We said: ‘Play football, have confidence. It’s important that, despite all the seriousness, we also go into the game with a certain looseness. “
Toures goal was no coincidence
That worked. “Even after the quick equaliser, we didn’t collapse, but kept our cool and played out a beautiful second goal,” summed up Rode. After Martin Hinteregger’s header hit the crossbar following a corner, Goncalo Paciencia, Djibril Sow and Rafael Borré played five quick and precise passes and Almamy Toure was free at the end and executed confidently. It was no coincidence, the goal scorer reveals: “We had prepared ourselves for such situations. It was part of the video study that they defend well with headers on one side, but don’t clear the second balls so well at times and have their problems there.”
Glasner almost went into raptures when talking about his eleven’s performance. “We were more disciplined, calmer, had a very good staggering, were variable, sometimes played through the outsides, sometimes between the lines – without losing our balance,” the coach listed. The personnel changes he made also played an important role. The attacking trio of Sam Lammers, Jens Petter Hauge and Jesper Lindström were, as expected, dropped from the eleven, with Paciencia and the extremely biting Borré starting at the top, and creative spirit Daichi Kamada playing behind them in attacking midfield. Glasner stuck with the 3-5-2, bringing on Toure for Timothy Chandler on the right wing and Tuta in central defence for Evan Ndicka, who had also been struggling recently.
“I’m very happy with the result, of course, but especially with the way we performed. “
GLASNER
All these measures paid off in full, not a single player fell short with his performance, one could write a few eulogies to Borré, Kostic, Hasebe, Kamada and Co. at this point. “I am of course very happy with the result, but above all with the way we performed. Especially the first half was great. With the ball, we were very variable and always goal-threatening, we had a high level of ball security and – what was very important – good protection against their fast wings,” praised Glasner and continued: “What really impressed me was that the players continued to believe in themselves and play forward after the unfortunate equaliser from the handball penalty.”
The chance ratio was 10:2 in the end, and apart from Youssef El-Arabi’s miscued finish in the 12th minute and the penalty kick, Eintracht left nothing to chance. The good organisation and safeguarding mentioned by Glasner cannot be emphasised strongly enough. “It was a very important element that our wingers didn’t play as left and right wingers, but supported the three-man backline again and again. They were both very disciplined there, Erik Durm at the end as well,” explained the coach.
Glasner: “We’d like to be there”
It must have been a rollercoaster of emotions for the Austrian as well in the past few days. After the defeat against Berlin, you could tell from his dismayed appearance at the press conference how much pressure he was under. All the more reason for him to savour the minutes after the final whistle against Piraeus. “During the game, I get relatively little of what’s going on in the stands because I’m so into the game. But afterwards, when the players took their well-deserved lap of honour, I stood there looking into the stadium and just enjoyed it.”
The health department-approved 35,000 spectators made for a great atmosphere, even if parts of the active fan scene continued to stay away. Glasner also used the renowned opponent and the expected atmosphere in the stadium as an opportunity to emotionally grab the professionals before the match. “Olympiakos is used to playing in the Champions League. I told the players that these – in this stadium with our fans – are the kind of games where we sat in front of the TV as little boys with big eyes and said: ‘We want to be there one day’.” The big challenge now will be to awaken this joy and passion for the game at VfL Bochum as well. So that there is no rude awakening after the magical night.
