Oliver Glasner and Marco Rose have more in common than a Salzburg past. Only one of the coaches can win the DFB Cup final on Saturday. For Glasner it would be a farewell with triumph.
Oliver Glasner glanced at Marco Rose and landed the first hit with dry humor in the warm-up hall of the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
“We’ve both turned quite grey, I’ve seen it on the right now,” said the Eintracht Frankfurt coach, referring to the first meeting with his colleague from RB Leipzig a good ten years ago. On Saturday (8 p.m. / ZDF and Sky), neither of the two wants to look old in the DFB Cup final, and the summer break should start with a triumph in the last game of the season.
Rose too late – Berlin city traffic
Rose, who also pointed out with a grin that his hair had become much lighter, was only stuck in Berlin traffic 28 hours before the highlight game. The 46-year-old RB coach appeared slightly late for the joint photo shoot with the 48-year-old Glasner and the trophy in the belly of Germany’s final stadium. “We’re here to win this thing. There’s no question of favorites because you can beat anyone in the world on any given day,” said Rose. His captain Willi Orban saw the Leipzig final experience as an advantage: “We’re in the final for the fourth time in five years. It’s almost like coming home.”
The Eintracht team showed last year in the Europa League that they can also play in the final. Whether Glasner’s farewell will be triumphant will be decided on Saturday evening in front of 74,322 spectators in the sold-out Olympic Stadium. The sometimes impulsive Austrian will definitely be remembered as one of Eintracht’s most successful coaches since the turn of the millennium. If things didn’t always go according to plan in the league, the team often went beyond their limits in the European Cup. After the triumph in the Europa League, the premiere in the Champions League made it straight into the round of 16.
Dino Toppmöller possible new Frankfurt coach
The search for a successor is now in the hands of Markus Krösche. The ideal solution should be Dino Toppmöller, but the head of sport didn’t want to be named. This makes no sense, said Krösche at an event of “Bild”. The focus is on the endgame. “After that we will decide and announce it. After the final, the future will continue,” said Krösche.
The fact that the 42-year-old, who is highly valued in his field, will remain in Frankfurt despite a vacancy at Bayern Munich is now considered certain. “The focus is on Frankfurt. There was no contact,” said the former Leipzig player before the duel with his ex-club. His RB successor Max Eberl made a similar statement after a week of silence: “Today I don’t know why I shouldn’t fulfill my contract in Leipzig.”
Eberl also used the trip to Berlin to show the new woman at his side to the public. Natascha Fruscella is a TV presenter, the 49-year-old lives in Munich. But there are facts, “that I have a contract in Leipzig, that I’m planning a transfer period, that I’m planning extensions like yesterday,” emphasized Eberl. And these are “the facts that I cling to”.
50,000 Eintracht supporters expected
In Frankfurt, people like to stick to tradition – especially from the fan side. There you see the game against Leipzig, of course, as a duel of opposites. Here the five-time cup winner, founded in 1899, there the unloved project from a suburb of Leipzig, where the first title was celebrated in Berlin last year. Around 50,000 Eintracht supporters are expected in the capital. At the fan festival on Breitscheidplatz, President Peter Fischer, who is rarely at a loss for a fuss, wants to get the crowds in the mood with a speech.
Otherwise, at the executive level, people held back. It was quickly agreed that there would be no joint fan scarf and that the duel of the systems should not be declared. There are still announcements, for Eintracht boss Axel Hellmann the outcome is clear: “It will be a Frankfurt weekend. That’s why there will be a Frankfurt message, there will be a Frankfurt final and in the end there will be a Frankfurt cup victory.” Around 1,000 invited guests came together on Friday evening in a former factory building. The club had invited to similar events in Barcelona and Seville last year.
Source: Stern
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