Frankfurt (AFP)

The last step was too high: Strasbourg will not play in the Europa League play-offs after being swept by Eintracht Frankfurt (3-0) on Thursday in the play-offs.

Winner (1-0) in the first leg at the Meinau, the RCSA has never been able to exist in the madness of the Commerzbank Arena and has lost logically after goals from Stefan Mitrovic against his side (27th), Filip Kostic (60th) and Danny Da Costa (67th).

In a tense match where each team finished at ten, the Germans, semi-finalists of the competition last May, literally smothered febrile Alsatians defensively and almost non-existent offensively. And the Strasbourg keeper Matz Sels avoided an even bigger sinking by multiplying stops ...

Racing, which has not found the elite that there are just over two years, fell against him stronger than him Thursday but his career has proved that the club continues to grow.

In an exceptional atmosphere, the Eintracht sought entry to ignite the game by imposing a big pressure in Strasbourg, but a parry of Sels on a powerful shot of Daichi Kamada has avoided the opening of the score (7th) .

By dint of pushing, Frankfurt has logically managed to score and thus equalize on all of the two matches: Ante Rebic overflowed left side and fired a center-shot, that Mitrovic has diverted in his nets of the shin (1-0, 27th ).

Shortly after, Sels saved his team by superbly defeating a Paciencia header on corner (38th).

On the Alsatian side, apart from a tentative header and a crushing shot by Ludovic Ajorque (21st, 41st), Kevin Trapp, former Paris SG goalkeeper, was not put in danger.

The exclusion just before the half-time Rebic (44) for violently hitting Sels gave a little hope to the Strasbourg who have taken better in the second half.

- Liénard cracks -

The Racing finally displayed the respondent and on corner Lamine Koné missed the frame of little of the head (53e). But the improvement was short-lived since Dimitri Lienard was ruled out for hitting his opponent in response to a violent tackle (55th).

In the wake, Frankfurt scored a second goal on a killer free kick from Kostic who entered after hitting the crossbar, triggering hysteria in the stadium (2-0, 60th).

If Kevin Zohi and Adrien Thomasson scored on Trapp (63rd, 73rd), Frankfurt was able to be more effective by inscribing the goal of the knockout by Da Costa on a center behind the untenable Kamada (3-0, 67th).

The Eintracht, which was really too strong for a brave but outdated Strasbourg team, offers itself a new European adventure, to the delight of its fantastic public.

© 2019 AFP