The frustration over the red card for top scorer Randal Kolo Muani was just as great at Eintracht Frankfurt as the anger over the 0-2 defeat against SSC Napoli in the round of 16 first leg of the premier class. “I find it hard. It wasn’t a smooth red card for me,” said Eintracht director Mario Götze about the Frankfurt striker’s dismissal.
Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner also disagreed with the decision of the Portuguese referee Artur Dias. “Randal played the ball beforehand. We had a similar situation recently when the referee explained: If the ball is played beforehand, it’s only yellow. Then it would only have been a yellow card,” said the 48-year-old footballer Teacher to the scene in the 58th minute.
Götze: “First have to process the whole thing”
Götze had complained to the referee on the lawn and had been warned for it. “In the end you have to assess the entire situation. It was an offensive move by Kolo. The other player also tackles the ball. Seconds are decisive,” said the 2014 world champion.
The Hessians will miss Kolo Muani in the second leg on March 15 in Naples. “We have to process the whole thing first,” said Götze. But he didn’t want to write off Eintracht yet. “We know that anything is possible away from home. Napoli scored two goals for us, why shouldn’t we do it there. We will do everything for it,” announced the 30-year-old.
Glasner admitted: “Today it hurts. We are brutally disappointed.” In the second leg, however, the players would not “enter the Maradona Stadium in Naples as tourists with the white flag. We made too many mistakes, we have to learn from them. We will do that,” announced the Austrian and emphasized: “In football Anything is possible. We still want to turn the result.”
