The meeting took place in the Glasgow Rangers area.

Neighboring FC Barcelona would have been more suitable given the occasion.

After all, Eintracht will face the top Spanish club in the quarter-finals of the Europa League on April 7th and 14th.

But this room in Eintracht's professional campus is too small for a large group of journalists to have extensive conversations with sports director Markus Krösche.

Ralph Weitbrecht

sports editor.

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Glasgow or Barcelona – the main thing is the European Cup.

Says Krosche too.

"I'm not a fan of not setting goals." Krösche's goal and that of Eintracht is clear: "Our goal is to play in Europe again next year.

Everyone saw how awesome it was.” The Frankfurters have had good experiences with the Europa League, the second-highest competition, for many years.

"But we would also play in the Conference League," said the 41-year-old sports director on Wednesday.

Ultimately, the decisive factor is the sporting performance in the Bundesliga, in which Eintracht, despite being seven points behind fifth-placed Freiburg, still have every opportunity to improve before the season finale on May 14th.

“You have to be ambitious”

“If you have goals, you have to define them, express them and also demand them.

If you don't reach them, you'll just get punched in the face.

That's the way it is.

But I'm not a fan of not setting goals in the first place.

You have to be ambitious to achieve goals.

To do this with a certain attitude, with optimism and conviction.

But of course the goals have to be realistic and achievable.

I wouldn't stand up now and announce participation in the Champions League."

It was a colorful bouquet of topics that Krösche addressed.

So it could still be “that we still do something on the offensive.

It's about flexibility in order to be less predictable.” In concrete terms, this summer transfer period may see another attacker find their way to Eintracht, which Krösche sees well positioned with central striker Rafael Borré and Randal Kolo Muani, who has already signed up.

"Half of Europe was chasing him," said the sports director about Muani.

He opted for Eintracht because they had apparently made it palatable for him to "help him become one of the top players in Europe".

Also in the summer, winger Faride Alidou will move from Hamburger SV to the Main.

The 20-year-old has been given a contract until July 1, 2026.

“We have to do this now”

Europe lures.

The forthcoming quarter-final game against Barcelona is electrifying and ensures a huge rush of ticket requests.

In the end, however, there will be 48,000 fans who will be there live in the stadium.

Krösche is also looking forward to the Catalans.

“Of course the focus from the outside is totally on Barcelona.

You can't keep that completely away from the team either." Nevertheless, "the boys know what is important: to reliably score points in the Bundesliga, as we did recently."

Krösche sees coach Oliver Glasner's team as having a duty to tap into the maximum potential.

"We just have to pull it off now," said the sports director.

"That's why the focus is first and foremost on Fürth." The Glasner team is the clear favorite on April 2 against the Franconians, who are far from the bottom of the table - against Barcelona it looks very different.

The harmony between duty and freestyle, between Bundesliga and Europa League.

Krösche sees room for improvement in order to live up to the self-demand and really play European consistently.

"We at Eintracht Frankfurt have to become even faster and more efficient when recruiting players."

"First of all, we have to wait and see how everything develops over the next few weeks."

Tuta should stay

It is clear that Eintracht will also part with players.

Especially those whose contracts expire this summer.

Danny da Costa and Stefan Ilsanker have already been signaled that their working papers will not be extended.

It looks completely different with Tuta, for example.

The club definitely wants to continue working with him.

"We have been in contact with his advisor for a long time," said Krösche.

"Both sides want to extend." The 22-year-old Brazilian, who didn't have an easy time last summer, "but never let himself down", as Krösche emphasized, has long since found his way back into the starting eleven.

"He's an extremely intelligent boy who anticipates well and wins the ball well." Tuta stands for the future of Eintracht - and is an important building block for current national and international tasks.