The Frankfurt Eintracht puts everything on one card.

Full concentration is on the Europa League, the Bundesliga becomes a negligible compulsory program on the final match days of the season.

With this attitude, which was justified by coach Oliver Glasner with reference to the necessary division of forces, the Hessians completed the game at Bayer Leverkusen on Monday.

Marc Heinrich

sports editor.

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The events took a course that could not really surprise anyone: The Frankfurters lost to a Werkself who were willing to work and who went about their game much more consistently in their 2-0 win to realize the Champions League.

Frankfurt B-Eleven

In the premier class, Eintracht, which fell back to 11th place due to the defeat, would also like to be there.

To do this, they first have to defend the lead from the first 2-1 meeting this Thursday in the semi-final second leg against West Ham (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and on RTL) and then also triumph in the final in Seville.

In any case, this requires a greater assertiveness than the B-Team was able to show that evening in the Rhineland.

In the next floodlit match on the international stage, some of the regular players who were left out in Leverkusen for various reasons should be back in action: Rafael Borré was suspended due to yellow card suspension, Martin Hinteregger because of a cold, Jesper Lindström because of a muscle strain and Sebastian Rode, who has both knees have been causing complaints for a long time, was able to take a creative break at Glasner's behest.

From the first guard, only Kevin Trapp, Evan Ndicka, Kristijan Jakic, Filip Kostic and Tuta were on the pitch at the kick-off;

instead, reserves Ajdin Hrustic, Makoto Hasebe, Ragnar Ache, Timothy Chandler, Jens Petter Hauge and Goncalo Paciencia were given the opportunity to show what they're made of against one of the league's strongest teams.

Glasner's anniversary

For Glasner it was his 100th game as a Bundesliga coach - and he gave his players a very defensive approach.

Kostic and Chandler positioned themselves far back on the wings and should provide a five-bar in front of their own penalty area if necessary.

At Bayer, it was the offensive players Paulinho and Moussa Diaby in particular who tore apart the defensive line in the white jerseys with their ball dexterity and speed when switching.

Trapp intervened to clear Diaby for the first time in the 5th minute.

An unsuccessful advance by Hauge put Frankfurt behind.

He gave the ball carelessly in the forward movement and in return it was quick.

Neither Hasebe, who hastily moved out of the center, nor Ndicka, who joined, were able to slow Diaby's attack.

The Frenchman passed right across the penalty area and found a taker in Paulinho, who had rushed Chandler and “tunneled” Trapp to make it 1-0 (18').

When something worked for Eintracht up front, which didn't happen too often, Kostic had his feet in the game.

However, his crosses and crosses after standards found no takers.

At least Ache held her ground from time to time, while Paciencia hardly ever did.

Change of three after the break

Offensively, Eintracht remained harmless.

Lukas Hradecky, their former keeper, who now wears the captain's armband at Bayer, didn't even have to intervene courageously in the first half;

and in the second half only at Hrustic's attempt (75th).

Hasebe noticed the lack of match practice, who was lucky that his inaccurate pass only resulted in a counterattack, in which Robert Andrich shot past the left post (40th).

At the start of the second period, Glasner tried to bring fresh impetus with a three-way change.

Erik Lammers, who had only made five brief appearances this year, replaced Hauge as the third nominal striker;

Kostic gave way to Ansgar Knauff and Tuta was replaced by Almamy Touré.

Eintracht spares itself in duels

However, Leverkusen remained much more dominant and immediately followed suit.

Odilon Kossounou stole the toy from Lammers' foot and passed it on to Diaby, who found a grateful taker in Patrik Schick: The Czech threw in to make it 2-0, which was still valid after the video assistant checked it because there was no offside ( 52.).

Frankfurt's efforts to correct the result afterwards were not particularly worth seeing, even with Djibril Sow and Daichi Kamada.

It seemed to all of them that it was more important not to get involved in difficult duels and to be able to start the journey home physically unharmed.

At least they succeeded.

But more will have to come against West Ham.