With a confident performance, Eintracht Frankfurt equaled Chelsea FC’s Europa League record and took a big step towards the round of 16. The second-placed team in the Bundesliga won 2-1 (1-0) at Danish champions FC Midtjylland and is now unbeaten in this competition for 18 games across the season.
Hugo Larsson in the 7th minute and Omar Marmoush (57th) with a hand penalty scored the goals for the Hessians, who are in third place in the table with 13 points after five games. Nnamdi Collins (48th) unintentionally scored an own goal to equalize. The next opponent of Eintracht, who won the Europa League in 2022, is Olympique Lyon on December 12th.
“It’s very nice, we worked hard for it and played very maturely today,” praised goalkeeper and captain Kevin Trapp on RTL, but warned: “A top team will be at the top at the end, we’re not even halfway through the season. ” The victory is still an “extremely important step towards qualification” for the knockout rounds.
“We have always fully accepted this competition and enjoy this stage,” said Frankfurt’s sports director Markus Krösche before kick-off. The Hessians showed that from the start. After a nice combination via Hugo Ekitiké and Marmoush, Larsson scored with a shot into the far corner to take the early lead.
Eintracht misses opportunities
Frankfurt controlled the game and cleverly kept the home team away from their own goal. Former national goalkeeper Kevin Trapp only had to seriously intervene once in the first half when Adam Buksa shot. However, Eintracht wasn’t really compelling in attack and only had half-chances for Larsson and Arthur Theate. Both failed because of Elias Olafsson in the Danes’ goal.
Otherwise there was a lot going on between the penalty areas – until Marmoush missed a great chance to make it 2-0 shortly before the break. After a fine pass from strike partner Ekitiké, the top scorer had a free path, but lobbed the ball just over the goal. Olafsson would have been powerless in this scene.
Shortly after the substitution, Niels Nkounkou also missed a possible second goal. The Frenchman didn’t hit the ball correctly in a promising position. Almost in return, the equalizer came out of nowhere when Collins unfortunately deflected a cross from Mikel Krüger-Johnsen into his own goal. The ball arced over Trapp into the far corner.
Marmoush scores again
Eintracht shook briefly and immediately straightened out again. When Midtjylland defender Ousmane Diao deflected a shot from Marmoush in his own penalty area with his hand, the English referee Craig Pawson decided on a penalty, according to the video images. Marmoush grabbed the leather and turned ice cold. It was the 25-year-old Egyptian’s 15th competitive goal this season.
After 68 minutes, the striker called it a day and was replaced by Can Uzun. And Rasmus Kristensen was also still allowed to work at his old place of work. The right-back made his comeback after recovering from a thigh injury. Both of them worked together and almost scored Frankfurt’s third goal. After Kristensen’s cross, Uzun’s header narrowly missed the target, so the score remained 2-1.
Source: www.sport.de
