Eintracht Frankfurt played another brilliant European game as they clinched a vital win at the London Stadium.
Eintracht Frankfurt defeated West Ham 2-1 in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final tie on Thursday. The Hammers displayed an uninspiring performance while Eintracht celebrated back-to-back away wins at the tournament.
Eintracht are a different team in Europa League!
The Eagles came into the game on the back of six winless games in the Bundesliga. However, they very soon made it clear that they had not come all the way to London to suffer another defeat.
It took them only 50 seconds to score the opener through Ansgar Knauff’s header. Shocked by the early goal, West Ham were not able to quickly find their feet in the game.
However, they finally managed to find the equalizer in the 20th minute. Following a fine cross from Manuel Lanzini, Kurt Zouma nodded the ball across the face of the goal, where Antonio scored from close range.
Eintracht found a few more chances to restore their lead but couldn’t score until after the first half. The Eagles started the second period with dominance, constantly attacking from both flanks.
They finally scored their second goal when Daichi Kamada converted the rebound of Jesper Lindstrom’s effort to score a one-on-one situation against Alphonse Areola.
West Ham pushed hard to get back into the game after getting behind 2-1. However, Eintracht’s solid backline did not let them create serious chances.
What’s next for West Ham and Eintracht?
The two sides will meet again in the second leg next week. However, before that, they must return to their respective domestic leagues.
West Ham will host Arsenal in the Premier League while Eintracht meet Leverkusen in their next Bundesliga game. Let’s see if the Hammers can bounce back from the defeat as early as this Sunday.
Player Ratings
West Ham: Areola (6); Johnson (6), Dawson (6), Zouma (7), Cresswell (6); Soucek (7), Rice (7); Bowen (5), Lanzini (6), Fornals (7); Antonio (7).
Bench: Benrahma (7).
Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp (6); Tuta (7), Hinteregger (6), Toure (7); Knauff (7), Sow (6), Rode (6), Kostic (7); Lindstrom (7), Borre (7), Kamada (8).
Bench: Hauge (7), Ache (-).
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