Eintracht Frankfurt reflect on Champions League collapse after loss on Jonathan Burkardt: “And then, fear took hold.” | OneFootball

Everything quickly fell apart for German Champion League representatives Eintracht Frankfurt against Serie A guests Atalanta Bergamo last night. Shortly before the hour mark, the Bundesliga outfit lost talismanic striker Jonathan Burkardt to injury. After Burkardt’s substitution off in the 59th minute, the goals proceeded to rain down at Deutsche Bank Park. The Bundesliga outfit ended up losing 0-3.

Former RB Leipzig professional (also the undoer of Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2023/24 Europa League Final) Ademola Lookman scored the 0-1 in the 60th minute. Lookman then supplied the assist on Ederson’s 0-2 in the 62nd minute. Atalanta’s Charles de Ketelaere would then drive the dagger deeper in the SGE hearts with the 0-3 in the 65th. Eintracht head coach Dino Toppmöller and SGE quad captain Robin Koch offered up their thoughts afterwards.

“Today, in the second half, one had the feeling that fear that we wouldn’t win such an important game was taking hold,” Toppmöller told the DAZN microphones last night. “Then [when Burkardt went down with injury in the 55th minute], we lost a key figure. That has an effect on a team.“

“There was a lot of positives and plenty of good chances in the first half,” Koch added in the mixed zone. “We had the feeling at half-time that we could get it done. Then we just gave the game away.

“It’s simply difficult to explain,” an extremely haggard-looking Koch continued. “We thought it was our day and came out [of the tunnel at half-time] thinking we could manage it. Then we just lost our way on three occasions.

“Everyone knows how important Johnny [Burkardt] is to us,” Koch concluded. “It was definitely a scary moment and I hope he’ll be back soon.”

GGFN | Peter Weis