“They all showed strong nerves” | OneFootball

The showdown in Frankfurt lasted six minutes. At 21:06 CET, Fabio Silva stepped up as the first penalty taker and he confidently kicked the ball into the top right corner, giving BVB a 1-0 lead in front of the 6,000 fans who had travelled to Frankfurt. It was perhaps a slight advantage that the decision in this dramatic cup match fell on this part of the pitch, and not on the other side of the stadium where the Frankfurt fans were. What was definitely an advantage for the Black & Yellows was the fact that after Silva's goal, the pressure of scoring was now on the home team. Although Uzun had no problem scoring the 1-1, after Niklas Süles 2-1 Doan's nerves failed him and the Japanese player kicked the ball well across the bar. Carney Chukwuemeka then kicked the ball into the low left corner. Although former BVB player Batshuayi, who had been brought on specifically for the penalty shoot-out, managed to score the 2-3, Borussia had two match balls when Felix Nmecha as the club's fourth penalty taker, sent Zetterer calmly into the wrong direction. Then Fares Chaibi had to score for Eintracht.

Gregor Kobel, who has saved eight penalties in his professional career so far – in the Bundesliga two for Stuttgart, one for  Augsburg an BVB, three in the UEFA Champions League (for Borussia), and one in the Swiss national team – put maximum pressure on. He hit the post and the crossbar as if to say: It doesn't matter where you kick the ball, I will get it anyway. Chaibi took four steps and then kicked the ball towards the left corner. Kobel stretched himself and made the save. At 21:12 CET, everyone rushed towards the goalkeeper and cheered for him.

Lars Ricken: “Big compliment!”

“Greg deserves special praise,” said Lars Ricken afterwards about the goalkeeper: “Frankfurt had several chances, so you need a good goalkeeper who can also save that decisive penalty. A big compliment to Greg, but also to the rest of the team. Taking those penalties with so much confidence after just having played 120 minutes: a big compliment! They have all showed to have strong nerves in a stadium that was much like a cauldron for 120 minutes.” (To the match reactions.)

After the celebrations were over, first with the fans and later in the dressing room, Kobel was finally ready to answer the questions of the journalists, but he “didn't really want to talk about himself” and revealed in the end that it had been an intuitive decision to jump to the right. Everyone knows nowadays that whatever you do goes straight onto the Internet, so you have to figure out a bit how you want to do it, or not.” The Swiss goalkeeper quickly turned the focus onto the team and the effect of such a win: “It was even more emotional and therefore also more fun for everyone. We were all happy for each other.” Lars Ricken hopes: ”This win should give us a lot of confidence, because we have eliminated a director opponent in the league as well as in the cup.”

The draw for the round of 16 will take place on Sunday. “It's a dream to win the cup with such a fantastic club. It's the shortest route to a title, but that doesn't make it any easier,” said Kobel. Because in the third of six rounds, opponents like Leipzig and Leverkusen, Stuttgart and Munich “loom”, if these three win on Wednesday (29 October).

Boris Rupert