Into the crunch time!

In the important phase in which it counts.

With courage, determination, great will to succeed and a cool head.

That was the plan of the Frankfurt Eintracht - and it worked out for the Hessians at the beginning of the hot autumn due to the schedule.

With the 2-0 win over Union Berlin on Saturday, Eintracht inflicted the Bundesliga leaders' first defeat of the season on matchday eight.

The Berliners had remained unbeaten in 14 first division games across the season (eleven wins, three draws).

George Daniels

Editor in the sports department

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Frankfurt, on the other hand, who set the rhythm for a long time and are waiting for the six English weeks in the next month and a half with twelve games left before the World Cup in Qatar, were happy about their second home win.

Before that, Eintracht had only won once in five home games across all competitions in this round.

In front of 50,500 spectators, the goals for Frankfurt, who were strong in the tackle, were scored by Mario Götze in the twelfth minute and Jesper Lindström (42nd).

Union, which was not efficient this time, got nothing.

The Berliners had only conceded four goals before the duel on the Main – best in the league.

But now they had to deal with Hessen, who were quite consistent in the end, and moved up to fifth place in the table.

And their success was even more valuable because Eintracht had to play outnumbered for more than 20 minutes after Randal Kolo Muani received a yellow-red card.

"Eintracht was more alert and sharper"

"It was really good from the way we took on the game." Sport director Markus Krösche - "that was very confident" - spoke of a "very good team performance".

For coach Oliver Glasner it was “a great performance.

We controlled the pace well.

We were calm and always pushed the pace change,” he said.

His Berlin colleague Urs Fischer classified the result as a "deserved victory in Frankfurt".

"The Eintracht was more alert and sharper.

She got the basics on the pitch the way we imagine,” he praised the opponent.

Much was said before the game about Eintracht's weakness at home.

About the possible reasons, one of which, according to Glasner, can be that the team puts too much pressure on themselves to be able to meet the high expectations in front of their own audience.

In foreign stadiums, Glasner's impression is that the team, which has only won three games at home in all competitions this year, plays more freely.

Only: Psychological measures such as changing the hotel, swapping the substitutes' bench or taking a detour with the team bus to give the feeling of an away trip were out of the question for the coach.

And Eintracht, which has only lost one of seven home games against Union in professional football, was set for success even without such measures.

"We found our game," summarized Ansgar Knauff the convincing performance.  

His teammate Tuta also sees the Frankfurters prepared "to experience a golden October".

The Brazilian was again part of a back three on the right with Makoto Hasebe as libero in the centre.

Glasner had to do without defensive midfielder Kristijan Jakic (bursitis in the hip), this time the team consisted of captain Sebastian Rode and Daichi Kamada.

The Swiss frequent player Djibril Sow, who also did a decent job in his national team, initially received a creative break from the coach.