Frankfurt suffer defeat ahead of Chelsea Euro clash

BERLIN: Eintracht Frankfurt coach Adi Huetter said that it was one of the worst days of his career as his side were thrashed 6-1 by Bayer Leverkusen, just days before they travel to Chelsea for the second leg of their Europa League semi-final tie.

“Today is a very dark day, one of my worst as a coach,” Huetter told Sky.

Frankfurt, who are challenging for a top four spot in the Bundesliga and held Chelsea to a 1-1 draw at home last week, were stunned in a bizarre first half at the BayArena where all seven goals were scored.

“We knew Frankfurt had an intense Europa League game behind them, so we wanted to play with energy from the beginning,” Leverkusen striker Kevin Volland told Sky.

Kai Havertz opened the scoring for Leverkusen after just two minutes, and Julian Brandt added another before Jonathan Tah deflected in a Filip Kostic shot to briefly allow Frankfurt back into the game.

A brace from Lucas Alario, a Charles Aranguiz strike and a Martin Hinteregger own goal put Leverkusen 6-1 up by the 36th minute and completed a Bundesliga record of seven goals in the first half.

Frankfurt remain in fourth but are now level on points with Leverkusen, and only three points ahead of seventh-place Hoffenheim.

“I am not going to kick my team when they are down, we need to get the boys back on track,” said Huetter.

Sunday’s horror show also damaged what had been a healthy goal difference advantage over their rivals in the race for Europe. — AFP