Adi Hütter’s Eintracht Frankfurt are in the last 16 of the German Cup. They won 3-1 at Hamburger SV on Tuesday night, with all four goals coming in a busy 23 minutes after a goalless first half.
Robin Koch and Jonathan Burkardt scored for Frankfurt at the Volksparkstadion before the substitute Younes Ebnoutalib added a third. Terem Moffi got one back for Hamburg late on.
Hamburg had the better first half
Hamburg were missing six regular starters. Captain Nicolai Remberg and striker Yussuf Poulsen were among them. Sander Tangvik started in goal. Even so, the home side created more before the break.
Moffi ran through on goal, but Jeremiaha Maluze stopped him with a well-timed tackle. Zakaria El Ouahdi forced Frankfurt goalkeeper Noah Atubolu to tip a hard shot over the bar. At the other end, Sebastiaan Bornauw blocked a shot from Burkardt.
Hamburg also wanted a penalty when Koch knocked El Ouahdi over in the box. Referee Tobias Stieler said no, and the video assistant did not step in.
Frankfurt took over after the break
Early in the second half Nnamdi Collins, already on a yellow card, caught Hamburg’s Jonas Möller Wolfe in the head with his shoulder. He stayed on the pitch, but Hütter took him off straight away.
In the 56th minute Koch scored from close range after Burkardt laid off a cross from Can Uzun. A few minutes later Moffi had the best Hamburg chance of the night. He met a corner a short distance from goal and headed wide.
Frankfurt then scored twice in four minutes. In the 71st minute Burkardt got past Shafiq Nandja and beat Tangvik. A minute later Hütter took off Burkardt and Mario Götze, who had started in midfield. Ebnoutalib, on for Burkardt, made it 3-0 in the 75th. Moffi scored from close range in the 79th after Atubolu failed to hold a shot.
What the coaches said
“What the team showed in the second half impressed me a lot,” Hütter said after the game. He said the win was deserved, but he also gave Hamburg credit for fighting until the end.
Hamburg coach Merlin Polzin was unhappy about the penalty call. “For me that was a situation that could clearly have led to a penalty,” he told reporters. He called the missed chances “very, very annoying”.
Our take
Frankfurt were not at their best for 45 minutes, and they were lucky with the penalty decision and with Collins staying on. Once Koch scored, though, they took their chances, and Hütter’s changes worked. Ebnoutalib scored within minutes of coming on.
Hamburg can take something from the first half with a weakened team. They now need to turn chances into goals. The two clubs meet again on Sunday in the Bundesliga in Frankfurt, and the last-16 draw is the same day.
Was it a penalty on El Ouahdi, and would it have changed the game? Tell us in the comments.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Adi Hütter by Werner100359 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Adi Hütter by Sven Mandel (CC BY-SA 4.0), Mario Götze by Steindy (CC BY-SA 3.0), Volksparkstadion by Daniel from Glasgow (CC BY 2.0).