From Frankfurt's point of view, the best sporting action around Easter took place in Dortmund. For Eintracht, who had once again lost in Leverkusen the day before, it was literally a stroke of luck that Alfred Gislason made on Easter Sunday in the German Football Museum. The national handball coach was responsible for the draw of the two semi-finals in the DFB Cup together with the former national football player Thomas Hitzlsperger. And as if he seemed to have heard the wish of the Frankfurters, the Icelander pulled the supposedly easiest opponent out of the lottery drum with VfB Stuttgart. The semi-finals, which are not yet exactly scheduled and will be played on 2 and 3 May, were thus complete. The other game is Freiburg against Leipzig.

Ralf Weitbrecht

Sports editor.

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So Eintracht in the southwest classic in Stuttgart. In a first reaction, Markus Krösche was confident with the last opponent on the desired way to the Berlin Olympic Stadium. "We want to go to the final with all our might," said the Eintracht sporting director. "It's our big goal, and we've already shown this season that we can win in Stuttgart."

Krösche draws hope from history that it could really be something again with a final participation in the traditional city of Berlin. "In 2017 and 2018, Eintracht reached the final away from home." In 2017, Frankfurt's professional footballers prevailed on penalties at Borussia Mönchengladbach. In 2018, a narrow 1:0 in the Arena on Schalke was enough to solve the ticket for Berlin. When the coup in the final against Bayern succeeded five years ago, there was a player who also wants to make it to the final again in 2023: Makoto Hasebe. From the victorious cup winning team, the now 39-year-old Japanese is the only current Eintracht professional who was actively involved in 2018 and is still on the ball for Frankfurt.

Frankfurt football players have been to a cup final eight times so far. Five times it was the respective Eintracht captain who was allowed to lift the DFB Cup into the air. The dates of the triumphs are well known. 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988 and 2018.

Champions League is far away

The chronic weakness of Eintracht is also well known when it comes to asserting itself in the core business of the Bundesliga in Leverkusen. The last success at the Bayer Cross was almost ten years ago. The last eight games have all been lost. And also match number nine, played on Holy Saturday, took the expected course. This time it was 1:3 – and again Eintracht had no chance. Krösche, coach Oliver Glasner and captain Sebastian Rode later complained about individual mistakes and inadequacies that would have made it easy for the Rhinelanders to counter Eintracht. The result: Bayer has passed by, the Glasner eleven is now only seventh in the table.

The reach for the stars, the renewed qualification for the Champions League, which is still the goal of the Frankfurt officials, is now already seven points behind Leipzig far, very far away. More realistic is the way back to Europe via the detour Berlin. Year after year, it is the fastest way to secure access to the European Cup and thus for more attention, more spectacle and more money.

Of course, the Eintracht professionals believe that they will not slip further in everyday league life and, on the contrary, make the leap to Europe. But a lot has to fit for that, and Glasner's team must not perform like they did in Leverkusen. Rode summed up the future route precisely: "Now we have to hope, fight and work." The Frankfurt leader said after the 1:3, "that we were not blatantly inferior". But inferior, the Frankfurt football professionals were. Once again, they could run out of breath in the final spurt in the league.

This Tuesday, Glasner will resume work after two days off from Easter, which he had granted his team. The focus is on preparing for Saturday's stage in the so-called top game against Mönchengladbach. A victory there is mandatory, you do not want to slip further in tabular form and also let Borussia slowly come close to you. Home game against Gladbach, away in Dortmund, at home against Augsburg: The team may already be looking forward to the cup task in Stuttgart: everyday life is still full of pitfalls and challenges.