The Eagles humiliate Turkey’s king on Champions League return

How They lined up

FRA: Zetterer; Collins, Koch, Theate, Brown; Larsson, Chaïbi; Doan, Uzun, Knauff; Burkardt

GAL: Çakir; Sallai, Sánchez, Singo, Elmali; Lemina, Torreira; Akgün, Gündogan, Sané; Yilmaz

Eintracht Frankfurt put up a commanding display in a 5-1 humiliating defeat of reigning Turkey Super Lig king, Galatasaray, in their Champions League return at the Commerzbank Arena.

Visiting Galatasaray honored the encounter without their injured talisman striker, Victor Osimhen, and paid dearly in the Nigerian’s absence.

Thursday’s dominating win over Galatasaray took Frankfurt to the summit of the standings. Dino Toppmöller’s Eagles toppled PSG at the table top following their 4-0 thrashing of Atalanta 4-0 on penultimate evening. Atlanta and Galatasaray now share spots at the bottom of the league.

Yet, it was Galatasaray who shot into the lead in the eighth minute. Leroy Sané picked up an assist on a fast counterattacking foray, by connecting Gala Captain, Yunus Akgün, on his left.

Akgün then meandered his way around Nnamdi Collins, totally wrong footing the Germany international, before ramming the ball home beyond Michael Zetterer’s lunging frame, to put the Turkish giants ahead.

Then, Can Uzun, Jonathan Burkardt and Ansgar Knauff all scored for Frankfurt. Galatasaray centre-backs, Davinson Sánchez and Wilfried Singo also added their share of the goals to the home side’s spoils with unfortunate defensive errors that would ultimately lead to painful own goals.

But the visitors would spurn chances to take a commanding lead. Barış Alper Yılmaz came to scoring a second for the Galatasaray in the twenty-second minute. In another counterattack, Yılmaz dashed into the right side of Frankfurt’s box before firing a low shot towards the bottom-centre, but Zetterer was timely in grabbing the ball.

From a Collins handball incident at the edge of the box two minutes later, Yılmaz was presented another opportunity to score from the resultant free kick which Gündoğan cleverly directed to his left, and with Yılmaz well clear to score. The Turkish international failed to take the opportunity either, booting the ball into the sky.

In the twenty-eighth minute, Cim-Bom created another chance to go ahead. From the right side of the Frankfurt half, a through pass from Roland Sallai eluded the inattentive Frankfurt center-back Arthur Theate, but Zetterer clawed it to safety. Yet, Galatasaray reassembled, and Lucas Torreira’s followup right-footed rocket flew out for an Eagles’ goal kick.

At the half-hour mark, it was the chance of Frankfurt to put the visitors on edge. A free kick cross was directed by Robin Koch towering header into the centre of the goal area. Eren Elmalı redirected the ball with his chest, bouncing it towards the goal line; both left-back and Uğurcan Çakır lunged full length to stop it from slipping in, and the Aslan (Lion) held on to their lone-goal advantage.

However, Ritsu Dōan finally brought the hosts to parity with the visitors with seven minutes of the first half left to be played. Snatching a Cim-Bom pass gone awry at the edge of the box from Akgün, Dōan lifted the ball above Çakır, past Sánchez, and into the centre of the goal. Akgün protest of a Dōan handball while bringing down the intercepted ball, was ruled by officials to have deflected off his shoulder.

Yılmaz felt that he had gotten Galatasaray 2-1 ahead in the forty-second minute when his free header nestled into the bottom-right corner; but, he was judged to be offside in the buildup to the play, and thus the goal did not stand.

Uzun then connected with a right-footed cross into the centre of the Galatasaray penalty area from Jonathan Burkardt; executed a turn and directed a left-foot effort past İlkay Gündoğan, into the top-left corner.

Frankfurt had shown they were frightening from set-pieces. This was demonstrated from Farès Chaibi’s splendid play into the 18-yard box. Galatasaray Ivorian defender, Wilfried Singo, made an unlucky touch with the ball as it clattered past Uğurcan Çakir.

The pulse was extremely charged at the Deutsche Bank Park, with the Eagles now fully committed to holding on to their lead in the second half.

Things began to fall for the home side atmosphere as Burkardt’s header, from a Nathaniel Brown pullout, struck Sanchez yet again to put the match to beyond reach in the 66th minute.

It was yet again, a defensive miscalculation from Cim-Bom, following Elye Wahi pressing Gabriel Sara, leading the ball to Ansgar Knauff, to score the fifth goal with 15 minutes remaining.