Frankfurter Eintracht met Filip Kostic on Friday from a new and very unpleasant side.

According to information from the FAZ, the 28-year-old attacking player was absent without excuse from the final training session before the away game this Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) in Bielefeld.

A scandal.

Kostic also did not travel to East Westphalia with the team.

He informed those responsible for the association that they wanted to leave Eintracht.

Apparently the Serb wants to force his departure, Lazio Rome should be his new professional goal.

The Eintracht club management is very irritated by Kostic's approach and manners and does not want to be put under pressure by him, especially since there was no written offer for Kostic from another club on Friday.

It is hard to imagine at the moment that this will run up again for the Frankfurters after his strike action and the rift.

If Eintracht had an economically lucrative offer for the Serbs, whose market value is estimated at a good 30 million euros, they would probably let him go.

But that's not enough of the bad news for the Hessians.

Meanwhile, Amin Younes' move to Saudi Arabia to join Al-Shabab Riyadh has also come to an end.

Both clubs are said to have already agreed on the transfer fee (around four million euros) for the dribbling offensive player.

But now Al-Shabab has apparently withdrawn the offer for Younes.

The question now is whether there will be another buyer for the 28-year-old by the end of the transfer period next Tuesday.

"A very difficult program"

Both personalities overshadowed the group draw for the Europa League on Friday, despite all the anticipation that was initially expressed after the opponents were drawn in Istanbul. As with captain Sebastian Rode, who can gain a lot from the Frankfurt game plan in the second highest European competition. “It will definitely be a spectacle,” he said of the duels with Olympiacos, Fenerbahce Istanbul and Royal Antwerp in Group D. “It's a very exciting group. They are all good teams that have been successful in their leagues, ”said sports director Markus Krösche.

In the ranks of Fenerbahce stands Mesut Özil, who became world champion with the German national team in Brazil in 2014. In addition, the currently injured striker Serdar Dursun moved from Darmstadt 98 to Fenerbahce this summer. There will be no reunion with the former Eintracht coach Niko Kovac, who is now in charge of AS Monaco. Monaco meets PSV Eindhoven in the very demanding Group B with Mario Götze, Real Sociedad and Sturm Graz. In this respect, the Frankfurters seem to have been lucky. Rode, who currently has to take a break due to a knee injury, still spoke of “very demanding lots. It's a very difficult program, ”he says.

According to the club coefficients, Eintracht was in pot two.

In total there were four pots with eight teams each.

Clubs from the same country could not come into a group, Bayer Leverkusen meet in Group G against Celtic Glasgow, Real Betis Sevilla and Ferencvaros Budapest.

From the eight groups of four, the eight winners each qualify directly for the round of 16.

The other eight places for the knockout phase are determined by the eight runners-up in the Europa League and the eight group thirds in the Champions League in play-off mode.

The third group of the Europa League in turn move into the play-offs of the Europa Conference League.

The first group matchday will be played on September 16, the second will follow on September 30.

"The mood was impressive"

Rode did not want to commit himself on Friday in the press conference room of the World Cup arena to how far Frankfurt will come this time in the Europa League. “Basically, I have a lot of confidence in us. We know what is possible internationally with Eintracht. ”He was“ confident that we will look very good again, ”said the 30-year-old, who had followed the draw together with the team in the packed cinema of the new professional camp .

Rode once played with Bayern Munich in the Champions League preliminary round in Piraeus. "The atmosphere there was impressive." As he now expects "absolutely atmospheric games" in Group D. “When you play against a Turkish team in Germany, it feels like a million Turks want to go to the stadium. I hope that the Eintracht fans will still be superior, ”said Rode and generally wished for the Europa League round that“ numerous fans could be there ”in times of the corona pandemic.

With regard to the recovery process from his knee injury, Rode assumes that he will "definitely" miss the first two games in the Europa League. "It's never easy to set a date," said the midfielder about the timing of his possible comeback, adding: "It's also not helpful to apply unnecessary pressure." During a knee operation last week, he had "a minor abrasion was removed from the cartilage, it was nothing dramatic, ”reported Rode. “The problem with my knee has been known for a long time.” During the pre-season season, his left knee “reacted to stress. It is a little swollen. And the swelling stayed, ”said Rode.

On Saturday in Bielefeld, the Frankfurt team will have to achieve their first goal of the season in the third game without their captain. “I am absolutely positive that we will take the first win. Then this debate will be over, ”said Rode. And if not? "Then we won't panic." There is enough trouble with Eintracht through Kostic.