Eintracht Frankfurt: "We have to keep improvising"

The last walk of the evening hurt.

All the Eintracht players, marked by the previous hardships, walked leisurely towards the curve of their supporters to thank them for their support.

Even the slow pace caused problems for Makoto Hasebe.

The Japanese limped - and a bandage covering parts of his left knee made it clear that this Champions League mission could keep the Frankfurt defensive organizer busy for longer.

Marc Heinrich

sports editor.

• Follow I follow

Midway through the second half, the 38-year-old collided with two-goal scorer Heung-min Son (20', 36') while trying to fend off another Tottenham Hotspur attack;

Hasebe had to be substituted shortly afterwards because he could no longer sprint and thus no longer support the team in its attempt to ward off the second defeat in the group stage.

In the end, Eintracht lost "not undeservedly", as their coach Oliver Glasner summed up, 2: 3 against the third-placed Premier League team.

The Austrian later reported that Hasebe was complaining of "quite a bit of pain" and that it was possibly an injury to the inner ligament which, as experience has taught us, would result in a week-long absence.

Detailed investigations followed in Frankfurt.

Glasner didn't beat about the bush, but announced that "we have to keep improvising".

The defense was already a weak point before the business trip to the island.

“We threw everything in”

But now the problems worsened.

Should Hasebe actually have to pass until further notice, he would be the third professional after Luca Pellegrini (shoulder problems) and Ansgar Knauff (thigh injury) that Glasner cannot take into account in his concepts for the game against Leverkusen this Saturday;

The fact that two newcomers, Jerome Onguene and Aurelio Buta, are still in trouble and do not promise any remedy increases the pressure to act.

After all, Almamy Touré is probably about to make his comeback.

Glasner, who had often struggled internally this season with the course of events in discussions with sports director Markus Krösche and publicly, chose a different approach in London to analyze the situation and then look ahead.

He was "convinced" that the team that took the lead through Daichi Kamada (14th) would master this challenge because in the encounter with the Spurs he recognized "the willingness" that no matter what may, not small to let get.

"We threw everything in and I saw a lot of things that impressed me."

In view of the nine games remaining until the World Cup break, he presented himself to the Eintracht community as an encourager: he was "confident about the future", said the 48-year-old, "it will work out".

Against a competitor "on a world-class level" who, in the person of Son and Harry Kane, had protagonists who largely eluded Eintracht's control, there were "one or the other scene" in which his "overwhelmed ' Glasner admitted.

Above all, the full-backs, Kristijan Jakic, who caused the penalty by clumsily kicking his leg, which Kane used to make it 2-1 (28th), and Christopher Lenz, who had little to counter the speed with which the English advanced on the right, showed themselves as only conditionally suitable;

Even with Tuta, who got the yellow-red card with two fouls in quick succession (59th), it became clear, as before in Bochum, that he is not at the peak of his creative power.

But Glasner, which was indicated against the Spurs, seems to be making progress in the search for alternative courses of action.

In any case, his idea of ​​bringing about a change with a quadruple substitution in the 68th minute had more of an impact than most observers among the 55,000 visitors assumed.

Most of them assumed that Tottenham with the majority would easily win over time.

A mistake.

With the conviction that they had nothing left to lose and driven on the wings by Junior Ebimbe and Faride Alidou, who headed the goal (87th), the tension returned.

Glasner expressed his appreciation for the decimated team's willingness to try everything until the end, and felt "character and personality".

Although it was true that "not everything went perfectly", his players could have left the pitch "with their heads held high": "We were us.

That was the Eintracht identity.” We must continue to work on this path, and although Eintracht is last in their group with four points, behind Tottenham (7), Marseille and Sporting Lisbon (6 each), nothing is lost.

"At the moment we are at the bottom, but we have everything in our hands," agreed Captain Sebastian Rode.

With successes against Marseille (October 26) and Lisbon (November 1), the round of 16 qualification is still feasible.

Sports director Krösche also described the constellation as “totally open”.

The final phase in particular made him optimistic, when the youngsters showed “that they can make an impact”.

If it is also possible to "fix some mistakes" and nobody has the temerity to "see themselves on an equal footing with Tottenham", he promises a learning effect from the performance at White Harte Lane, which could lead to edifying results: "Everything is possible for us,” said Krösche.

That sounded like a bulrush – but it is in fact more after the fourth day of play in the premier class than some Eintracht critics had promised at the draw in late summer.