Three things we learnt from Atletico Madrid 5-1 Eintracht Frankfurt | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt encountered their first big test in the Champions League as they travelled to Madrid to face Atletico Madrid.

It was obvious from the start that it was UCL veterans against a team of majority debutants. Frankfurt conceded early on when Giacomo Raspadori tapped the ball in to give the hosts an early lead. Die Adler were unable to gain any sort of hold on the game with Atleti well on top.

The Spaniards then doubled their lead when Robin Le Normand headed home. Just before half-time, Atleti made it 3-0.

In the second half, Frankfurt came out brightly and gave themselves a lifeline with a Jonathan Burkardt goal. However, it would not last long as the Spaniards made it 4-1 from a Giuliano Simeone header. A Julian Alvarez penalty would make it 5-1 in the 82nd minute.

So here are the three things we learnt:

Frankfurt receives a Champions League reality check:

Atleti are Champions League regulars. They have made the competition 13 seasons in a row and are always involved in the knockout rounds. After a strong performance against Galatasaray in the opening round, today has shown how Frankfurt actually matches up to the ‘bigger’ teams in the competition.

Against the Spaniards, the young Bundesliga squad were schooled in how to manage and play in a big European tie.

On top of this, the occasion probably got to Frankfurt, and they were never able to implement their style of play. Can Uzun, who has been electric in the opening games of the season, was non-existent, while the other attackers were also feeding off scraps.

The takeaway from this is that Frankfurt are not expected to win these types of games. However, they still have to face Liverpool, Barcelona and Napoli, so this young team needs to learn how to play in these games – fast.

Defending is a problem:

In Frankfurt’s past three games, they have conceded 13 goals. In the first, they lost 4-3 to Union Berlin, at the weekend, they beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 6-4, and today they have lost 5-1.

As great as they are going forward, defending is a real issue for this team, in this game alone (via FotMob), Frankfurt have allowed Atleti to have 12 shots on target, and most importantly, eight big chances.

This has become a worrying theme over the past couple of games. Now the team is young, but they need to learn how to defend better. Several times in this game, their high line was too high, and it would be easily exposed by Atleti.

With a game against Bayern Munich on Saturday, with the way both teams are playing, it looks as if the Bundesliga leaders will comfortably beat Frankfurt.

Which leads me on to the final thing.

Frankfurt need more experience:

This is one of the youngest teams in the league, and as fun as it is to see a young team be successful, you need experience, and when it comes to experience at the highest level, Frankfurt are significantly lacking.

In the squad, there is Robin Koch, Michael Zetterer, Mario Götze, Michy Batshuayi, Ellyes Skhiri and Ritsu Doan when it comes to players over 25. In the Bundesliga, Frankfurt can get away with this, but when it comes to the top echelons of European football, only Götze has the experience at this level.

The departure of Kevin Trapp in the summer to Paris has been an understated one, and his European experience would have significantly helped this team.

Now it is clear that they are lacking, and if they want to achieve anything, they may need to adopt a similar approach to Leverkusen and continue with the signing of young players, but also need more experience to take them to the next level.

GGFN | Jack Meenan