Oliver Glasner congratulated his victorious colleague with a smile, the fans had long before intoned “European Cup, European Cup”. Eintracht Frankfurt suffered an expected defeat in the Bundesliga before the “game of games”. The Hessians lost 2-0 (1-0) at Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Monday evening. “The boys tried everything,” said Glasner: “That’s why it was okay.”
The Werkself vom Rhein are very close to their big goal of the Champions League. The third in the table can make everything clear with another win next weekend. Glasner sent his side into the game with eight changes from the 2-1 win at West Ham United in the first leg. The defeat for the second leg this Thursday against the Londoners cannot seriously be described as a failed dress rehearsal. “It was by no means an easy game,” said Timothy Chandler. “We rotated a lot, but it can’t be an excuse.” On Thursday they would “show a different face,” announced Eintracht professional Makoto Hasebe on DAZN.
In addition, for Frankfurt, for which the league is no longer about anything, there was nothing to get in Leverkusen in the past few years, even with the best line-up. This was the seventh defeat in a row at the BayArena with an unbelievable 2:25 goals. For Bayer, the safe participation in the European Cup, which was already certain at the start of the weekend due to the results, is only a stopover. The goal is clearly the Champions League.
And that is very close after the goals on Monday by Paulinho (18th) and Patrik Schick (51st) with his 22nd goal of the season. Especially since a competitor in RB Leipzig made a mistake at the same time and lost 1: 3 at Borussia Mönchengladbach. “It was a very important game and we’re happy to have the three points,” said Sardar Azmoun. “We were under a bit of pressure and we did it well,” emphasized keeper Lukas Hradecky, referring to the victory of other competitor SC Freiburg at the weekend.
The Frankfurters didn’t really seem unmotivated for the supposedly annoying stopover between the two West Ham games. Apparently the final tension was missing. The weakened Leverkusen team allowed the Hessians to play along and waited for counterattacks with their fast players. And one of the first led to success. Moussa Diaby, who was as fast as an arrow, pulled away, served Paulinho with an outside instep pass and the Brazilian, who had been successful last week, scored his fourth goal of the season through Kevin Trapp’s legs. Schick also scored in the 34th minute, but had previously been offside.
Eintracht hardly came dangerously in front of the goal. Goncalo Paciencia’s first shot on goal came in the 38th minute and was completely harmless, while Jens Petter Hauge’s was only slightly more dangerous despite a good position (42′). Coach Oliver Glasner saved more energy at the break and made three changes. Tuta and Filip Kostic were the only two outfield players left in the starting XI compared to the game in London.
The goal after the break scored again Bayer. Schick’s jubilation was initially interrupted by referee Benjamin Cortus for offside. However, video evidence showed that the Czech had not been offside by millimeters. The ball went through Trapp’s legs again, and Diaby provided the assist again; it was his eleventh of the current season.