With a slight tremor to the intermediate goal: Eintracht Frankfurt has reached the first milestone in the hunt for another magical European Cup season.

The team of coach Oliver Glasner came in the preliminary round against the Turkish top club Fenerbahce Istanbul, who started without Mesut Özil in the starting eleven, to a 1-1 and secured the first group place in the Europa League, which has been so important since this season.

This means that the Hessians are right in the round of 16 in their favorite competition and can save themselves the grueling detour via the intermediate round against a group third in the Champions League in February. Djibril Sow (29th) scored for the SGE, who were unbeaten in the preliminary round, while the German U21 European champion Mergim Berisha (42nd) equalized for the Turks, who were relegated to the Conference League. In addition to Frankfurt, Leverkusen is also set for the round of 16 in March from a German point of view, Dortmund and Leipzig have to go through the second round.

At the end of the group, Glasner didn't feel like doing arithmetic games.

“We're not going to wait and see and say, one point is enough for us, we'll see what comes out.

We will definitely play to win, ”announced the 47-year-old.

In return, the Austrian trusted his last tried and tested regular eleven, only Jens Petter Hauge slipped into the first eleven for the slightly ailing Jesper Lindström. 

And the newly formed offensive harmonized equally well, Rafael Borré (3rd) and Daichi Kamada (10th) forced Berke Özer to make first saves early on.

The semi-finalist of 2019 determined the game in half-time one, the Turks who did not start with the best cast concentrated on the defensive without Özil and Max Meyer, who was also sitting on the bench for the first time (was substituted in the final phase). 

Sow succeeded in an urgent phase of the SGE with a poke, the overdue lead, Berisha equalized after a gross blunder by Hasebe out of nowhere.

After the change, the Bundesliga team acted much more cautiously, but still radiated more danger than the hosts.

Filip Kostic (57th) moved centimeters from the half-left position, and substitute Sam Lammers (74th) also made his flick just past the corner.