Dhat was a hard piece of work. Eintracht had to improve and stretch at the start of this year’s European Cup campaign in order to win at least 2-1 against FC Aberdeen. The game against the Scots was the first group game for Frankfurt in the new Conference League environment, and when the final whistle sounded on Thursday evening in the sold-out arena with 55,500 spectators, there was great relief.
Going into the duel with the penultimate team in the first Scottish league as the “clear favourite”, Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller saw little to nothing of what stands for attractive football from the Eintracht brand for a long time. Only a fortunate penalty, which Omar Marmoush safely converted in the eleventh minute, allowed Eintracht to gradually improve from a weak level.
Aberdeen managed to make it 1-1 through Dante Polvara (22nd minute). But in the second half of the game, Eintracht finally lived up to their role as favorites and at least increased the score to 2-1 through Robin Koch (61′). A narrow but deserved victory, with Eintracht finding themselves in second place after this first day of group play. The league leaders are their upcoming opponents PAOK Thessaloniki. The Greeks won away at HJK Helsinki 3-2.
“Knew it would be difficult”
Winning goalscorer Koch, who found the decisive gap in the Scots’ defence, said after the opening win that “we had the game completely under control. But we knew it would be difficult.” For the 27-year-old defender, it was the first European Cup game in his career. “I was really looking forward to that.”
Stormy rain, endless ball relays: Eintracht found it extremely difficult from the start against defensively oriented Scots. Toppmöller’s team hardly wanted to succeed offensively. And when a goal did come, there was a bit of luck involved. He could give the penalty that referee Chrysovalantis Theouli whistled for Frankfurt in the ninth minute, but he didn’t have to. What happened?
Eric Junior Ebimbe broke into the Scots’ penalty area and gained an advantage in the jostling duel with Jack MacKenzie, which the defender also countered with a jostling. The Frenchman fell and the impartial Cypriot awarded a penalty. Marmoush, nominally the only striker, didn’t miss the chance to give the clearly favored Eintracht a 1-0 lead.
Capital bad pass leads to equalization
It was an extremely tough affair to break away decisively against the bulky Scots. The second-to-last team from the far north of Britain defended the space cleverly without losing sight of occasional advances. One of these counterattacks led to a surprising equalizer.
The starting point for the 1:1 was a major bad pass by Ellyes Skhiri, who was weak in the first half of the game. The Scots quickly moved to the right side, where Nicky Devlin kept an overview and fed the free-standing Polvara. Kevin Trapp in the Eintracht goal had no chance.
In the stands, the Aberdeen supporters responded with a burning Bengalo. Bad: The firecracker was thrown into the neighboring block in the main stand, where innocent spectators were sitting. The fact that Sebastian Rode ended early again after 38 minutes due to injury is another bitter setback in the Eintracht captain’s long history of suffering.
Hugo Larsson came into the game for him, and at least there was a small ray of hope until the break. Hrvoje Smolcic, who was deployed as the middle man in the three-man defense against Aberdeen, tried something surprising and unexpected. He loosely lobbed the ball to Paxton Aaronson, but the American’s shot was parried by Aberdeen keeper Kelle Roos (43′).
In the second half of the game, the game got better from Eintracht’s point of view, but this was sorely needed after the weak performance in the first half. Several chances have now been created. First, Niels Nkounkou had no success with a left-footed shot (57th) and substitute Fares Chaibi with a header (61st).
But when Chaibi ran to a corner and was able to use this standard situation to put the advanced Koch in the spotlight, the long-awaited 2-1 came about. Koch showed his class with his head. When it ended late, Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche was visibly relieved. “We have to play more clearly going forward, but we won. This is important.”
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