The Europa League specialists from Eintracht Frankfurt have also stumbled in their favorite competition and can no longer win this season. When 1: 1 (1: 1) against Fenerbahce Istanbul, a goal by former national player Mesut Özil (10th minute) caused problems for Hessen on Thursday morning. In front of 25,000 spectators - including national coach Hansi Flick - striker Sam Lammers (41st) later equalized and thus prevented the crisis from worsening at Eintracht, which this time did not achieve its usual top performance in international competition.
It was a classy and loud football evening that has hardly been experienced in the past year and a half of the pandemic. At the kick-off, the Fenerbahce fans burned down pyrotechnics and set off firecrackers - even after repeated warnings from the stadium microphone, the questionable spectacle did not end, after all, the guests from Turkey had reason to cheer early on.
The 2014 world champion Özil first prepared a crossbar hit by Mert Yandas in the initial phase, before in the same scene he shot a ball that Kevin Trapp had to the side to take the lead. Özil, who resigned angry and disappointed from the DFB team in 2018, showed an appealing performance when he returned for the first time since the dispute three years ago and repeatedly initiated goal-area scenes for the guests from Istanbul. When he was replaced in the 76th minute, the Frankfurt fans loudly whistled him.
The Hessians, on the other hand, faced the next false start after conceding an early goal and a weak initial phase, after the cup opener (0-2 in Mannheim) and the league start (zero wins from four games) had failed. Without coach Oliver Glasner, who was banned by the European Football Union UEFA, the Hessians, who are actually known as European specialists, tried their best, but precision was always lacking.
Striker Lammers once missed a cross from Filip Kostic, then a spectacular triple chance wasn't enough to equalize.
That only fell shortly before the break, when Eintracht countered in their own stadium and despite the backlog - Kostic dashed back through the left, this time the previously inconspicuous newcomer Lammers completed in the middle.
Now Michael Angerschmid, who replaced the Glasner who was cheering in the box, was also able to cheer for the first time.
After the break (60th) Lammers cheered again, but this time too early: In another clean counterattack, template provider Daichi Kamada was previously offside.
Eintracht controlled the game and pressed the winning goal, but that didn't happen.
The Glasner-Elf is already under pressure at Royal Antwerp on September 30th.
Eintracht was lucky in stoppage time. First Dimitris Pelkas failed with a penalty kick to Kevin Trapp (90 + 2), Berisha's goal by margin was denied because the goal scorer had illegally walked into the penalty area. After a tactical foul there was also a pack formation on the field shortly afterwards with loud discussions.