Dream goals, a magic duo – and the hope of the big coup: Led by Randal Kolo Muani and Mario Götze, the “moody diva” Eintracht Frankfurt stormed into the semi-finals of the DFB Cup despite all the background noise. Coach Oliver Glasner’s team celebrated a convincing 2-0 (2-0) against Union Berlin and, after the recent whirlwind, at least ensured some calm on the Main in sporting terms.
Kolo Muani (11th/13th) redeemed the Hessians early with a double strike, Götze provided the preparatory work worth seeing. “Of course, now we want to go to the final. It will be difficult, but doable. Today we just continued the performance of the last few weeks and this time we scored the goals,” said Götze on “ZDF”.
For Frankfurt it was the first competitive win after seven unsuccessful attempts – the dream of the next cup win after 2018 is alive. Coach Urs Fischer’s team from Köpenick, on the other hand, failed just before the final at their city rivals’ stadium, just like last year.
SGE trainer Oliver Glasner said after the game: “We played a great first half. In the second we managed it a bit too much. But it was a great performance. I’m very happy that we made it into the semi-finals today It was also important for us to keep a clean sheet. A win is good for us now, the lads did a great job today.”
Frankfurt wants to “become a cup winner”
In the run-up to Eintracht, the unrest behind the scenes caused a stir, such as the leadership dispute, the rumors about the change of coach and some top performers, but also the crisis in results. Glasner fully relied on the sporting “liberation” being successful, sporting director Markus Krösche made it clear that the goal was to “become a cup winner”.
The Hessians got off to a correspondingly furious start. First Kolo Muani failed because of Lennart Grill, who again stood in for the injured Frederik Rönnow (5th). But then the SGE offensive played into a brief frenzy: after a stroke of genius with a hoe by Götze, Kolo Muani executed ice cold, shortly afterwards the World Cup runner-up hit again with a lob after Götze assisted – Grill didn’t look good.
Eintracht manages the lead
Union, feared in the league mainly because of its defensive strength, wobbled alarmingly, nothing went offensively. Eintracht rolled over the Bundesliga third in phases in front of 49,500 fans. At the break, SGE should have been even higher, but Rafael Borre (20′) was initially offside when he scored, and a little later he hit the crossbar from close range (28′).
The Köpenickers, who had recently beaten Frankfurt in the league (2-0), made three changes during the break, but initially there was nothing more than a harmless shot by substitute Sven Michel (49th). Eintracht, on the other hand, acted in a much more controlled manner than in the first round, and Frankfurt were able to manage their lead against disappointing guests.
However, the Hessians failed to ensure even more calm earlier with a third goal. Jamie Leweling (86th) could have provided excitement again, but failed due to goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
