Frankfurt write new chapter in Champions League story – DW – 11/02/2022

Power. Management. Method. Randal Kolo Muani rolled defender Goncalo Inacio, introduced the ball beneath his spell along with his chest, and unleashed an explosive volley throughout keeper Antonio Adan and into the underside nook in a single fluid motion. It was a strike of beautiful high quality, flipping this sport and group on its head.

The objective immediately despatched Sporting spiraling from the highest to the underside of this broad open Group D and wrote a brand new chapter in Frankfurt’s historical past. At 1-1, a return to the Europa League, the match they famously received final season, beckoned. However Muani’s strike ensured Frankfurt’s Champions League journey will prolong right into a second Act.

Muani’s acquisition from French facet Nantes has turned out to be a masterstroke. The 23-year-old is already the Bundesliga’s high assister with 9 to his title already. However this child from the Paris suburb of Bondy has many sides to his sport, one in every of which is his instinctive eye for objective, which has stored Oliver Glasner’s facet rubbing shoulders with Europe’s elite for a short while longer.

Rode brings ‘stability’

Muani’s end was the gloss on a battling efficiency by Frankfurt in Lisbon, with Sebastian Rode coming off the bench at half-time and producing a combative however managed show that swayed the competition into the guests’ favor. The previous Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund midfielder drew on his expertise, delivering efficiency that secured him man of the match, a uncommon feat for a substitute, as Frankfurt turned a 1-0 deficit right into a 2-1 win.

“He is the captain of the workforce, the top of the workforce,” goalkeeper Kevin Trapp instructed DAZN. “He solely got here on for the second half, so it’s important to handle that first. However he introduced in an unimaginable quantity of stability. Gave the workforce calm in each duel. And he deserved that in the present day.”

Rode himself was usually humble in his submit match appraisal, giving the credit score to Frankfurt coach Glasner for making the change: “A very good coach at all times has one thing in thoughts when he brings somebody in. And when it really works so properly, it is all of the nicer. That that. I am simply immensely completely satisfied once we’re within the spherical of 16.”

‘Extra mature, a lot calmer’

Trapp had been left wrong-footed when Arthur had put Sporting forward a couple of minutes earlier than half-time. However Daichi Kamada’s cool penalty restored parity earlier than Muani delivered the killer blow — and Trapp believes that this sport demonstrated how the workforce has grown.

“That is what I mentioned yesterday within the press convention, that now we have grown as a workforce, we’re extra consolidated and but additionally as particular person gamers. And in case you see how we handled the deficit in the present day and the way we handled the setback within the first sport towards Sporting, that is already a giant distinction,” Trapp added. “We’re extra mature, a lot calmer – and that is what we have already been doing for the previous few weeks.”

Frankfurt’s victory wasn’t fairly sufficient to see them high the group, with Tottenham Hotspur scoring an damage time winner in Marseille, however to reaching the knockout levels of the Champions League is big progress for this set of gamers beneath this coach, and simply the newest chapter in Frankfurt’s European journey.