Oliver Glasner didn’t want to join in the usual whitewashing and honestly confessed his helplessness.
“Today I can’t think of enough of what we need to win in the second leg,” said the Eintracht Frankfurt head coach after the 0-2 (0-1) defeat in the Champions League round of 16 first leg against the champion-playing Serie A Leader SSC Napoli. But the Austrian would be a bad coach if he declared the trip to the second leg on March 15 as a sightseeing tour.
“We will not move into the Maradona Stadium as tourists with the white flag,” emphasized Glasner. After all, he not only has three weeks to figure out a new strategy and successful tactics against the Italian European Cup high-flyers from Vesuvius, but also has to compete with the next round of 16 in the premier class on Saturday: RB Leipzig is waiting away in the Bundesliga.
Eintracht must learn the lessons from the debacle
In order to move past fifth in the league, just one point away, Eintracht has to learn from the many omissions against Napoli: play errors, uncertainty under pressure or weaknesses in standards. “We get the Nobel Peace Prize again for our standards because we didn’t even get to the conclusion,” criticized Glasner smugly and summed up: “We were overwhelmed in some situations.”
The dominant Neapolitans – the Italians played almost 400 more passes and had 70 percent ball possession – made only one gross blunder. Star striker Chwitscha Kwarazchelia failed with a penalty kick (36th minute) on national goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Goals were scored by his attacking colleague Victor Osimhen (40th) and captain Giovanni di Lorenzo (65th), who had failed in Wolfsburg. “I think we had it under control for the most part and put in a good performance,” was the Eintracht keeper’s somewhat unrealistic comment. “Of course the result is not optimal, but it’s one that we can shoot,” he said.
Frankfurt’s star Kolo Muani is missing in Naples
But there is no subscription to Wunder. At the end of the group stage there was a happy ending for the Europa League winners with a 2-1 away win at Sporting Lisbon – after a 0-3 at home. Creating the “Miracolo di Napoli” is likely to be a much greater challenge for Frankfurt: “Napoli is a very finely oiled machine,” praised Matthias Sammer, Champions League winner in 1997 with Borussia Dortmund, on Amazon Prime.
In addition, Eintracht will miss French vice world champion Randal Kolo Muani in the second leg after his much-discussed red card (58th). “I think that’s too hard. It was a killer for us,” said director Mario Götze. Glasner also struggles with the dismissal: “It’s bitter for him and for us.”
In Napoli, Kolo Muani’s fellow strikers will now need to score to create the sensation. “2-0 is a dangerous result. We will try to turn the result with everything we have,” said Glasner. Right winger Aurélio Buta doesn’t need any supernatural powers: “We don’t need a miracle, we believe in ourselves.”
