Europa League evenings have something magical for Eintracht Frankfurt. Coach Hütter meets his ex-club RB Salzburg this time. In Wolfsburg and Leverkusen, efforts are being made to fuel the enthusiasm.
Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - floodlights, large stage, full hut. This Thursday is "Eintracht Day" again, as sports director Bruno Hübner says. Last year's semi-finalist is looking forward to the first knockout round in the Europa League.
It's against coach Adi Huetter's former club RB Salzburg of all places. At VfL Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen, the euphoria is not nearly as great: opponents Malmö FF are difficult to grasp for Lower Saxony. In Leverkusen the club advertises the game against FC Porto on Weiberfasnacht with a carnival package.
The Austrian Hütter sees the chances of entering the round of 16 before the first encounter with his compatriots at "50:50". After all, he does not have to be afraid of Erling Haaland: The new Norwegian striker changed from Salzburg to Borussia Dortmund in the winter and now shines for BVB in the premier class.
For Hütter and for his professionals Martin Hinteregger - he will be closed on Thursday (6.55 p.m. / DAZN) - and Stefan Ilsanker will be reunited with their former club. "We would be lying if we said that it was a normal game for us," said Hütter. Hübner already sees Eintracht as something of a German ambassador: "We won a lot of sympathy in the past Europa League season and have become the second favorite club for a lot of people. In politics, one would say: we have a lot of second votes. "
"The Europa League has an electrifying effect on the club and its surroundings. We want to draw attention to ourselves again beyond Germany," said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. For sports director Fredi Bobic "the European Cup is only really starting now".
For Leverkusen it is the first Europa League game after relegation from the Champions League. In order not to play in front of half-empty ranks, Bayer issued a carnival package that includes tickets for the postage game (9:00 p.m. / RTL / DAZN) as well as the game against Augsburg and a carnival scarf for a reduced price. That obviously worked. Bayer now expects around 27,000 spectators.
The Portuguese had failed in the premier season in the premier class in the quarterfinals at the eventual winner Liverpool. "An absolute top opponent," assured Rudi Völler, head of sports at Nitro, and announced a similarly attractive game to that of 4: 3 against Borussia Dortmund a week and a half ago. "It will be like against Dortmund," said the 1990 world champion.
The Europa League is an ambivalent thing for Wolfsburg. So far, only 10,800 spectators have attended the three home games this season. And it's really hot for the next game on Thursday evening (9:00 p.m. / DAZN) only in Sweden. Because there Malmö FF announced that it would be accompanied by more than 4,000 fans to the Volkswagen Arena.
The intermediate round opponent has not played a league game in three and a half months. At least the wolves got some free information at last. "Malmo comes with an experienced team that will not pee in front of Wolfsburg," said the "kicker" the coach who was in charge of the European Cup finalists from 1979 until December. His name is Uwe Rösler and he is now training Fortuna Düsseldorf. His successor in Malmö also knows German football well: It is Danes Jon Dahl Tomasson who stormed at VfB Stuttgart in 2005/2006.
With their passionate appearances in the European House of Commons, the Frankfurters can only be role models for both Leverkusen and Wolfsburg. Nobody has come as far as Eintracht with the semi-finals in 2019 against the eventual winner Chelsea. In the four years before, Wolfsburg (2014/2015), Borussia Dortmund (2015/2016), Schalke 04 (2016/2017) and RB Leipzig (2017/2018) always failed in the quarterfinals as the last German participant. And no Bundesliga club has ever won the successor cup of the UEFA Cup.
UEFA information on the Europa League
VfL Wolfsburg's Europa League squad
VfL Wolfsburg's European Cup record
Game data
Press kit for the Leverkusen game on uefa.com
Information about the carnival package at bayer04.de
Eintracht squad
Press kit for the Eintracht game on uefa.com
Preview on eintracht.de
