The final punchline of an emotionally charged evening with deep sadness and tremendous cheers belonged to Axel Hellmann. The Eintracht Frankfurt board spokesman walked purposefully into the interview zone a few minutes after the final whistle of the 3-1 (0-1) victory over FC Augsburg and was determined to get three points.
First of all: Thanks to everyone involved in the stadium for dealing with the death of club legend Bernd Hölzenbein, who died on Monday at the age of 78. Finally: Once again criticism of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), which does not work in its current form.
In between: explosive words that, after a groundbreaking victory for Europe, could definitely be understood as criticism of the team and coach Dino Toppmöller. “I want to say, you can see how easy it is to bring this stadium to life. With movement to the goal, with duels, with passion. It’s not difficult for this stadium to get out of the saddle. And we have to succeed in that right from the start and not just in the second half,” complained the 52-year-old Hellmann. Frankfurt had previously been winless in four games and had remained surprisingly harmless in the past home games.
Memory of Hölzenbein
The CEO is not usually present in the interview zone that often anymore, but he obviously had a few important concerns on this emotional Friday evening. Hellmann ended his three-message monologue lasting almost exactly two minutes with the words: “I wish everyone a wonderful evening, thank you.” He didn’t allow any questions.
They have been waiting a long time in Frankfurt for such an exciting evening. The commemoration and remembrance of “Holz”, as the 1974 world champion was called, caused great emotions even before kick-off. Widow Jutta and the two children stood on the lawn next to Hellmann, who addressed the family with personal words. “There has been a lot of sadness over this club since Monday. The sadness is particularly great for the people standing next to me,” said Hellmann. “It is important to me that you realize that you are not alone in mourning Bernd.”
© imago/Jan Huebner/IMAGO/Jerry Andre
When Omar Marmoush, who wears Hölzenbein’s favorite number seven, scored the decisive 3-1 in added time after a long sprint a good two hours later, the professionals were in each other’s arms. It was the end of a fast-paced evening and an excellent second half for Eintracht, who with 45 points are now well ahead of Augsburg (39) and have their sights firmly set on international business. Fares Chaibi and Hugo Ekitiké had previously scored for Eintracht and Ruben Vargas for Augsburg.
It wasn’t about a lot of tactics, but about emotions – what defines the stadium, the club and us. This energy could be felt in the second half.
Kevin Trappgoalkeeper of Eintracht Frankfurt
“It wasn’t about a lot of tactics, but about emotions – what defines the stadium, the club and us. “That energy could be felt in the second half,” said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. That’s how coach Toppmöller saw it, who had been threatening to despair a little in the last few dreary weeks: “It’s a deserved victory. We had good passion and good energy.” He opened his part of the press conference with the words: “Thank you for the congratulations, I can finally say that sentence again.”
Now Frankfurt awaits the extremely demanding end of the season with games at FC Bayern as well as against champions Leverkusen and RB Leipzig. “The victory can be a breast lifter. This can be very important for the last few games. We ourselves expect to secure sixth place. We need points for that,” said defender Robin Koch.
It is not yet clear what sixth place will be enough for in the end and depends on how the Champions League and DFB Cup progress. In the best case scenario, a place in the premier class is possible in sixth place – for that Dortmund would have to win the Champions League and should only finish fifth in the league. If 1. FC Kaiserslautern surprisingly wins the cup, they could also go to the Conference League. “It’s not like we can sit back. We managed this step, but it was one of five,” said Toppmöller.