This Saturday, Eintracht Frankfurt returns from their training camp in Dubai.

She has eight days of training behind her and a double test against the Polish champion Lech Posen, which gave all the professionals who traveled with her the opportunity to present themselves.

Coach Oliver Glasner drew a positive conclusion before the return flight: "The conditions were very good, we put everything we had planned into the training program and the team showed again that they are a great team." The physical values ​​are outstanding again.

On the other hand, the test against Poznan showed that "we still lack the naturalness that we had in autumn".

In the last few days of preparation in Frankfurt, however, it was possible to get a grip on that.

Peter Hess

sports editor.

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Coach Glasner set up the marathon test against Poznan as a dress rehearsal for next Saturday's Bundesliga game against Schalke 04.

For the first 90 minutes, the Austrian sent an eleven onto the field, which could also play very well in the home game against the bottom of the table.

With the attacking quartet Kolo Muani, Götze, Lindström, Kamada as well as with Knauff, Sow and Ebimbe in midfield.

Alone Smolčić's appointment as the middle man in the back three, surrounded by Tuta and Ndicka, came as a bit of a surprise.

However, the formation was blown up after just five minutes, as Tuta caught his left foot in the grass, twisted his ankle and had to leave the field.

The Brazilian defender suffered an ankle injury.

The first diagnosis showed that no structural damage had occurred.

His use against Schalke 04 is still at risk.

Left winger Pellegrini came on for Tuta, Knauff switched to the right flank, where Ebimbe moved back into the back three.

The young Frenchman provided further proof of his versatile talent.

After appearances as a sixth, eighth and right winger in midfield, the 21-year-old also impressed as a defender.

Attentive, robust and with some good through passes in the build-up, he was one of the most conspicuous pros in what was at times quite an intense test match.

The informative value of preparatory games for the course of the following compulsory tasks is not particularly high.

In any case, apart from Tuta's injury, the first XI's 90 minutes gave no cause for concern.

Despite high training loads, the Frankfurters controlled the game against the Polish champions, who reached the knockout rounds in the Conference League.

Kamada completed the best attack of the day in the 52nd minute with the 1-0 winner.

The offensive didn't burn off any fireworks, especially Kolo Muani lost a few balls, but it was a solid performance with occasional highlights.

The defense was very good over long stretches.

Only Smolčić had two misses in the first few minutes, and there was a short period in the middle of the second half when the defense lost control and allowed Lech's only two chances to score.

"There was a lack of sovereignty"

Glasner took the few moments of weakness as an opportunity for criticism.

"The sovereignty was missing." He called Smolčić a born leader with a very good header game, but he allowed himself to be infected by the insecurities.

The decision as to who will be the middle man in the three-man defense against Schalke has not been made: "Smolčić, Hasebe and Jakić, who did very well in the autumn, are all possible," said Glasner.

The test of the pros from the second row (which Rode reinforced) was also satisfactory, apart from the first quarter of an hour, in which the supplementary player community first had to find itself.

The former Darmstadt player Sobiech only had to put his foot down to the opening goal after his colleagues had dismantled the Eintracht defense.

Then Kvekveskiri made it 2-0 for Lech Poznan with a wonderful free kick.

The fact that the 90 minutes ended 2:2 expresses the ambition of the Frankfurt pros, which Borré exemplified almost excessively.

Alario and Buta, whose shot was deflected by a Polish defender, scored the goals.

No Eintracht player showed overwhelming evidence that they had to be in the starting XI against Schalke, but almost all offered themselves as alternatives for the regular line-up.

Glasner singled out Buta.

“The fact that we got back into the game shows our good mentality.

We still have a long way to go in terms of compactness and discipline,” commented the Eintracht coach.

His summary of both friendlies was: "They were okay, but we can do a lot better.

You saw a certain tiredness.” Midfielder Djibril Sow asked for a milder perspective: “It wasn't all perfect today, but the week was very intense, so you can turn a blind eye.” It was important to “turn 90 again Getting on your feet for minutes to find the rhythm," says Sow, "because the focus before that was very much on the physical and the tactical area".

After what he considers to be a successful training camp, the Swiss international is going into the second half of the season full of optimism: "We have a very nice task ahead of us, and the team is really looking forward to it." By which he means defending fourth place in the table would lead to the Champions League: "If we don't afford games like we played against Bochum and Wolfsburg again, I'm very confident that we'll make it."