GLASNER KEEPS CALM AHEAD OF FINAL
EINTRACHT FRANKFURT boss Oliver Glasner insists their Europa League final against Rangers is just another game for them as he praised his full-strength side for battling back in their local derby.
And he revealed that Bundesliga Rookie of the Year Jesper Lindstrom is winning his fitness fight for the final, after being out with a thigh injury since the semifinal, first leg against West Ham.
Rangers can be encouraged with the ease with which Mainz scored and created chances in the Rhein-Main derby after they netted twice, hit the woodwork and had a goal disallowed after a VAR check.
But Eintracht also showed their attacking flair as they looked dangerous on the counter-attack and fought back from going a goal down to lead at the interval thanks to strikes from Brazilian defender Tuta and Colombian striker Rafael Borre.
Glasner played down the hype surrounding the build-up to the Seville final. He said: ‘We will train normally on Sunday. I don’t want to make the game bigger than usual.
‘The key is that we show our strengths on the pitch. We now have a few days of regeneration, then it’s already final training.
‘Rangers played with their strongest team on Wednesday — they didn’t do it on Saturday. I don’t think it’s advantage for us or Rangers. Both teams will be physically and mentally fit. We know that Rangers are very physical, very well organised, very fast and they are very good at getting space behind the defence. They will be ready but so will we. We have a huge amount of respect for Rangers.
‘From the 20th minute onwards, I was very satisfied with this performance. It was important that the players felt that we needed the reaction.’
This was a surprisingly strong Eintracht team. It was exactly the same line-up that defeated West Ham at home in the Europa League semi-final with the exception of Mali defender Almamy Toure, who was in to replace the injured Austrian international Martin Hinteregger.
Mainz went at Eintracht right from kick-off and got their reward in the tenth minute when Serbian midfielder Filip Kostic gave the ball straight to the Mainz attack and Marcus Ingvartsen eventually crashed a rebound from his own shot high into keeper Kevin Trapp’s net.
But the visitors scored with their first attack in the 26th minute when a Kostic free-kick was eventually turned in by Tuta at the second attempt after Borre’s initial header was saved.
And they showed exactly what they could do when they took the lead ten minutes before half-time when Ansgar Knauff spotted the run of Borre, who calmly slotted home with aplomb.
Eintracht were undone again four minutes into the second half with a simple goal. Anton Stach had far too much time on the wing and Ingvartsen got in front of a static defence to score his second of the game.
EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (3-4-2-1): Trapp; Tuta (Ilsankar 59), Ndicka (Lenz 69), Toure (Hasebe 59); Knauff, Rode (Jakic 46), Sow, Kostic; Hauge (Hrustic 59), Kamada; Borre. Subs (not used): Grahl, Ache, Chandler, Pacienca.