Champions League
Tottenham’s Son and Kane show Eintracht the limits
Eintracht Frankfurt had to admit defeat despite leading at Tottenham Hotspur. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
Eintracht Frankfurt gets off to a good start – but then Tottenham Hotspur strikes back. And how! The exceptional strikers Kane and Son use almost every weakness in Frankfurt. Nevertheless, hope remains.
After a turbulent final phase, Harry Kane gave the audience a relieved applause, Heung-Min Son comforted the professionals from Eintracht Frankfurt.
The two exceptional strikers showed the Bundesliga soccer club the limits at times on Wednesday, after the 2: 3 (1: 3) Eintracht threatens to lose sight of the round of 16 of the Champions League. “You have to say, Tottenham has a very, very high quality, especially when it comes to switching behavior,” said sporting director Markus Krösche. “The boys fought, tried everything and it got a bit wild at the end.”
Actually everything seemed clear for a long time. The strong Spurs goal scorers Son (20th minute / 36th) and Kane (28th / penalty kick) showed Eintracht at times. Daichi Kamada (14th) scored Frankfurt’s lead in front of around 60,000 spectators, Faride Alidou (87th) scored the late goal with a man down. Tuta (60th) had previously seen yellow-red. And then Kane (90+2) missed another penalty kick. “We played well, but today it was just the opponent’s brutal quality that made it difficult,” said Sebastian Rode at DAZN.
However, the late revolt did not hide the fact that a week after the 0-0 draw in the first leg, a class difference could be observed at least in some phases. Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp prevented an even greater defeat for Eintracht with several parades, which is now threatened with being eliminated in the preliminary round in the premier class debut. As the last in Group D, Frankfurt still has chances. “Now we have to see that we can win both games, then anything is possible,” said Krösche.
Eintracht starts furiously
In London’s state-of-the-art football temple, where the North American professional football league NFL only played a game on Sunday, Eintracht got off to a furious start. Oliver Glasner’s team acted wide awake from the start, pressed the opponent up and thus repeatedly won the ball. That paid off early. After a mistake when receiving the ball, Eintracht Tottenham’s Eric Dier chased the ball away. After several stops, he ended up with Kamada, who took the lead from close range.
So it went for the guests. Actually. Because the English didn’t find their game at all at first. But what you can always rely on: your individual class. And so Tottenham handed a first opportunity to equalize directly. Kane conveyed the ball through the interface of Eintracht’s defense to ex-Leverkusener Son, who shot flat into the goal free of Trapp.
At least that was the starting signal for an extremely entertaining game. When Eintracht wasn’t attacking, Tottenham attacked. There were hardly any breaks. Not even for Kristijan Jakic. In a duel in his own penalty area, the Croatian star striker checked Kane, after viewing the video images the referee awarded a penalty. Kane converted safely to put the English in the lead.
Son and Kane spin game
After less than half an hour, Kane had a goal and an assist – so it’s not surprising that FC Bayern, among other things, should be interested in the 29-year-old. And everyone noticed that the Spurs have another exceptional attacker in their ranks in Son. After a cross from ex-Munich player Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Son volleyed the ball into the net to make it 3-1. Now almost every defensive weakness of Eintracht was mercilessly exploited. Trapp prevented the 1: 4 against Son (42nd) and Romero (45th + 2).
The longer the evening lasted, the worse it got for the Hessians. Tottenham should have scored even more goals. And then Tuta made a fatal mistake. Three minutes after seeing yellow, he held Son from behind in front of the referee’s eyes and saw yellow-red.
Shortly before the end it got wild again. First Alidou surprisingly scored 2:3 after a Götze corner. Then Smolcic fouled Bryan Gil in his own penalty area – but Kane shot the penalty kick over it.