Eintracht Frankfurt has been 2-2 at Red Bull Salzburg to advance to the round of 16 of the Europa League. One of the day was the Portuguese André Silva with a double pack. The next opponent is FC Basel.
Salzburg (AP) - After reaching the Europa League round of 16, Eintracht Frankfurt was relieved in several ways.
With 2: 2 (0: 1), the Bundesliga soccer club parried the sovereign attempt by Red Bull Salzburg, especially in the early stages, to throw the Hessians out of the competition after the 4: 4 on the Main.
"We were lucky that the 0: 2 did not fall," said sports director Fredi Bobic about the initial storm and pressure phase of the Austrian champions. Instead, André Silva (30th minute) was able to compensate for the early goal of Red Bull captain Andreas Ulmer (10th). "The 1-1 was worth gold," said Frankfurt midfielder Sebastian Rode. Eintracht striker Silva was also able to equalize the 1: 2 by Jerome Onguené (72.) in the 83rd minute and thus made a turbulent guest appearance to success.
After all, the Hessians could only celebrate with a day's delay because the game had been postponed from Thursday due to the hurricane danger. "You couldn't influence the cancellation, but I didn't see it badly because we had a day more regeneration time," said Eintracht coach Adi Hütter. At the same time, his players had one more day to recover mentally from the 1: 2 home defeat in the Bundesliga last Monday against 1. FC Union. "Over two games, the move to the round of 16 is absolutely deserved," said the coach.
The Frankfurt team could also go into the Salzburg game with some relief because they knew that they would not have to go back to Werder Bremen 48 hours later. "If the game had stayed on, it would have been a huge disadvantage," said Hütter. He understood that Werder wanted to play. "But we do a lot for German football in Europe." In view of the many upcoming, important game dates, he hopes that the new start will take place "as late as possible". The next Wednesday, Eintracht awaits the Bremen for the quarter-finals in the DFB Cup.
The Europa League will continue in the round of 16 against FC Basel on March 12 and 19. "I hope that we will play a role this season as we did last year. We have the potential to do so," said Swiss midfielder Djibril Sow, who rates FC Basel at the same level as Salzburg. Eintracht had reached the semi-finals of the Europa League last season.
"It is a team that knows its way around Europe. It will not be an easy thing," said Bobic. "We want to come up with something in the home game and move on." Since the Swiss government has banned sports events with more than 1,000 people until at least March 15 due to the increasing number of coronavirus cases, the game in Basel could become a ghost game if the deadline was extended. "It would be nice if we could play with spectators, but that's also force majeure," said Bobic.
Eintracht squad
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RB Salzburg official website
UEFA press kit
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