Not much was missing and Eintracht would have started the new year with a respectable result.

But as it was, after the duel with Dortmund, who could look forward to a bit more luck, there were only a lot of compliments for the losers.

The Frankfurters have to be annoyed by the way in which they left the big points behind.

You could have climbed to fifth place with a win.

With the self-inflicted defeat, the rise in the table was stopped. Such disappointments can really hurt in May, when the final accounts are settled. Glasner's team did well - especially in view of the corona turmoil. With Sow, Touré, Durm and Da Costa, four professionals were missing after positive tests or suspected cases; In addition, Lindström, Jakic and Pacienica were a trio that was recently in quarantine and could only train individually.

The second virus winter has hit the Bundesliga hard, and Eintracht will also be happy when the state of emergency comes to an end. Corona causes the club more to create than many Bundesliga competitors. The Frankfurt stadium experience, which was previously attended by 50,000 visitors who provided a background sound that had a stimulating effect on the players in the Eintracht team, will no longer exist in this form for almost two years.

The economic (and thus sporting) collateral damage from the pandemic will go well beyond the € 45 million mark that the club estimated in a preliminary inventory. His ability to act is already limited. The club is currently living on the cushion that it has built up in better days since 2017. But the money is already tight to make adequate improvements in this transfer period. It would be appropriate, especially since the design options are limited in the offensive, as it became visible against Dortmund with the substitution of the pitiful Lammers.

Until recently, Eintracht wanted to establish itself as an address that attracts talent from all over the world who can later be sold lucratively.

With the inglorious story of Blanco, which six months ago was praised as a promise for the future, then disappeared into oblivion and now seized the opportunity to get away quickly, the hopes for a convincing copy of the “Dortmunder Weg” should for the time being be settled to have.

The departure of the Spaniard was announced with a thin seven-line line before the kick-off against BVB.

This setback in strategic planning outweighs the defeat on Saturday.