Oliver Glasner tried to save himself from the somewhat uncomfortable situation with a joke.

"My final words to the players were, 'Be careful not to hurt yourself.

And congratulates Leverkusen after the game,” said the Eintracht Frankfurt coach ironically.

No, he added seriously, of course you shouldn't blame his team for giving up the Bundesliga game when it was 0-2 (0-1) at Bayer Leverkusen.

That was also felt.

But in a fairly unimportant game before an extremely important encounter, Eintracht simply lacked the excitement.

And also the staff on the pitch.

The focus was obviously already on Thursday: After the 2-1 win in London against West Ham United, it's about reaching the final in the Europa League.

"You could see from the line-up that Thursday's game had absolute priority," said Glasner.

“We wanted to leave those who played last Thursday and probably play this Thursday on the pitch for a maximum of 45 minutes.

We have taken this into account.

This is unusual for the Bundesliga.

But in the Bundesliga we can no longer secure a starting place for Europe and on Thursday it's about the first final in over 40 years.

That's why it was the right thing to do, and I'm entitled to that." The preparation for the game was the same as usual, "except that we were completely blocked for two hours on the way there".

understanding of the opponent

The Eintracht fans did not seem to have any problems with this prioritization.

They celebrated their team with "European Cup" chants.

And nobody should have thought that, curiously enough, it was the narrowest defeat for the feared opponent in seven years.

"You have to say a big thank you to the guys for their understanding," midfielder Timothy Chandler said of the supporters.

“They understand that flicking the switch isn't always that easy.

But you warmed up for Thursday today.”

If Eintracht then plays against West Ham, they will feel a lot of sympathy from the league.

Not just from Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, who played for Frankfurt from 2015 to 2018.

"On Thursday I'll be a Eintracht fan again," said the Finn.

"I hope that we can make the Champions League clear.

And that we'll see each other there after their Europa League victory." Midfielder Robert Andrich agreed: "You can understand that they did it that way today.

We hope they will pull it on Thursday.”

The Werkself meanwhile have their eyes on qualifying for the Champions League.

In the event of a win on Saturday in Hoffenheim, the remaining doubts would have been eliminated on the penultimate day, and Bayer could save themselves the nerves of a final against Freiburg.

"That was our goal," said Andrich.

"We want to make it clear next week."