Eintracht Frankfurt after Champions League exit: whip not necessary

Esomething wanted to get away from the business Oliver Glasner not. “I shook off my personal sadness after playing five or six hours of football,” said the Eintracht Frankfurt coach on Friday. The day after the 0: 3 in Naples and the elimination from the Champions League, which was overshadowed by violent riots by Eintracht fans, three German clubs finally played in the Europa League – SC Freiburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Union Berlin – there you can turn it on. Especially since the Frankfurters did not train on Thursday because a place would have been available too late in Naples.

So for Glasner there was first Freiburg, then Union on TV. And of course it was a good thing that the evening program in front of the television had a purpose that went beyond overcoming frustration: Glasner, who with his team on Sunday Union Berlin at the Alte Försterei (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and at DAZN) was given an example of how to beat the next opponent.

Union Saint-Gilloise, second in the Belgian league five points behind Genk, has demonstrated what Eintracht should also be able to do if their coach has their way: the second leg ended 3-0 – and with it the European high-flying Berlin team, so that the initial situation before the Bundesliga game of the two teams acts like a copy of the respective situation of the other. In all competitions, neither Frankfurt nor Berlin have won in five games. Added to this is the end of the European Cup. And an upcoming game that is of great importance. Berlin is currently in fourth place, five points ahead of Frankfurt, who are chasing them in Mainz (four points behind), Wolfsburg (five) and Leverkusen (six).

Glasner knows how to beat Union

Glasner does not want to look at the table. “It’s important that we get our football on the field, create chances to score, defend consistently and are wide awake in set pieces,” says the coach: “If we do that, the probability is higher than if we look at the table day and night Watch.” Glasner knows how to beat Union. In the first leg, Eintracht won 2-0. At that time, she had left the ball and thus the game design to Union more often than in other games. Saint-Gilloise played similarly.

Glasner did not want to confirm whether that could be an option again for Sunday. “We can’t say, ‘We play like Saint-Gilloise.’ We’re sticking to our style,” he said, who is again considering the back four as an option that “has been gained”. One more offensive player to “get more pressure on the ball” – that worked well against for long stretches Naples. “We just had the issue of how to get a quick and good grip against a team in a 4-3-3 with wide wings,” explains Glasner. Attacking higher is always easier in a 4-2-3-1 formation.