SGE women victorious in Sweden
Frankfurt celebrates perfect Champions League debut
November 14, 2023, 9:59 p.m
The Eintracht Frankfurt footballers survive three qualifying rounds to compete in the Champions League group phase for the first time. The debut is with the Swedish record champions FC Rosengard. And Eintracht delivers. Now the home game against defending champions FC Barcelona awaits.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s footballers celebrated a successful debut in the Champions League. In the first preliminary round game in the club’s history in the European premier class, the Hessians celebrated a 2-1 (1-0) victory against Swedish record champions FC Rosengard. A good three years after taking over the former European Cup winner 1. FFC Frankfurt, it was Eintracht’s premiere in the group phase.
The opening success after goals from Eintracht captain Tanja Pawollek (25th) and Austrian international Barbara Dunst (84th) gave Frankfurt, who also have to compete against defending champions FC Barcelona and Benfica Lisbon in Group A, a favorable starting position. Olivia Schough reduced the score to 1:2 in stoppage time. On November 22nd, the Frankfurt team will host the Spanish world champions such as Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmatí and Salma Paralluelo for their first home game in Barcelona.
Frankfurt, which knocked 1. FC Slovacko (Czech Republic) as well as Juventus Turin and Sparta Prague out of the competition on the way to its first participation in a Champions League preliminary round, showed no signs of stage fright in the Malmö suburb of Rosengard. Eintracht coach Niko Arnautis’ team clearly set the tone for the hosts, who had recently clearly missed out on successfully defending their title in their domestic championship as they finished seventh in the table.
Both before and after the break, the current Bundesliga sixth-place team dominated and deserved their success. The only weakness of the Eagle Bearers, who only allowed Rosengard to have their first opportunity to score after more than an hour of play, was the completely inadequate conversion of chances. Accordingly, Frankfurt also had luck on its side when the Scandinavians hit the crossbar in the final phase (79th), and the goal came late.
After Frankfurt’s victory over the team of the German-Swedish legionnaire Rebecca Knaak, the team takes action on Wednesday (6.45 p.m./DAZN) Bayern Munich also entered the Champions League as the second Bundesliga club. The German champions welcome the Italian representatives AS Roma. Cup winners VfL Wolfsburg, who reached the final last season, failed to qualify for the group stage against Paris FC.