Eintracht Frankfurt’s Champions League trip ends with riots, an empty guest curve and the premature end of all dreams. There is no trace of the earlier magic in Naples, but in the end pride prevails.
When “O sole mio” boomed through the much too loud loudspeakers on Wednesday evening shortly before kick-off and the Neapolitan fans sang their Neapolitan sun, thick clouds had already gathered around Eintracht Frankfurt. Everything turned around in the catacombs of the venerable Stadio Diego Armando Maradona the riots in the city. In the stadium, the orphaned guest curve formed the equally sad and fitting backdrop for the lesson that followed.
Eintracht lost after a brace from Victor Osimhen and a converted penalty from Priotr Zielinski fully deserved with 0:3 (0:1) against SSC Napoli and was eliminated without a word in the round of 16 of the Champions League. The Frankfurt sun, which had shone so particularly well in Europe for so long, has just set.
Glasner reacts calmly
“We have to accept that Naples was a size too big for us,” Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner summed up the evening from a sporting point of view. Eintracht simply lacked the class and form against the upcoming Italian champions to even come close to a footballing miracle. “We’ve tried everything, so I can accept that.”
Naples shows Eintracht the limits
Now there is definitely no shame in being eliminated against this team from southern Italy. The team of the charismatic trainer Luciano Spalletti is currently perhaps the best on the entire continent. You can’t blame Eintracht for not trying everything again. Glasner’s switch from a back three to a back four and the idea of using more offensive players for more intensive pressing bore fruit and had an effect, at least for large parts of the first half.
Eintracht didn’t play badly, Eintracht even kept up very well at times. The magic of days gone by, when the Hessians conquered Barcelona or advanced to the Europa League final in an epic fight against West Ham, was completely missing in Naples. “That’s a bit of a disappointment, we had big plans,” said Captain Sebastian Rode.
In unity, pride prevails
Concord quarreled, concord mourned. The mere fact of officially being one of the 16 best teams in Europe was enough to lighten up the mood of everyone involved relatively quickly a few minutes after the final whistle. “We can be proud of this Champions League year,” said Rode. Coach Glasner added: “I’m very proud of what my team showed in the premier class.” Contradiction: inappropriate.
The frame is unworthy
The furious journey of the Hessians through Europe, which culminated in winning the title in Seville last May, ended in Naples with an emergency stop – and at the same time under unworthy conditions. The fact that the players couldn’t let themselves be celebrated in front of a fully occupied guest corner after the game and instead trudged a bit lost across the lawn is and remains an absurdity.
Even in the alleged cauldron of Naples, it was clearly audible and noticeable that a game without away fans dampened the overall atmosphere. “It’s very unfortunate how it all went,” Rode commented on the fan exclusion disguised as a ticket ban. The clear loser in this case: football itself.
Riots cloud the overall picture
As sorely as the Eintracht fans were missed in the stadium, they behaved just as badly outside the stadium on Wednesday. After the first clashes between the two fan camps had already occurred on Tuesday, the situation escalated completely on Wednesday afternoon.
After a clash between around 250 Eintracht supporters and 150 Neapolitan fans, street battles broke out with the police, as a result of which several cars burst into flames, windows were smashed and chairs were thrown through the air. “The only good news is that there were no serious injuries,” reported a dismayed Eintracht board member Philipp Reschke in a press conference called at short notice before kick-off in the stadium.
Eintracht deserved a different ending
One thing is clear: a peaceful football festival appropriate to the performance of the teams, as celebrated by the Hessians fans in Barcelona or Lisbon, for example, looks different and would have been appropriate given the Hessians’ previous appearances on the big stage. Eintracht is currently no longer herself. Eintracht would definitely have deserved a different farewell from the premier class. It could be a goodbye for a long time.