Winner 2-0 in Germany, Naples on foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. This means that his opponent, Eintracht Frankfurt is almost out of the tournament. “Congratulations to them for this 2-0 half-time advantage in this Round of 16. We are not going to the Maradona stadium as tourists. At 2-0, the match can be turned around” is already considering Oliver Glasner, the Eintracht coach. Small problem: the Germans will go in 3 weeks to the foot of Vesuvius without their new darling, the Frenchman Randal Kolo Muani. The vice-world champion was sent off shortly before the hour mark when Naples was already leading 1-0.
The Frenchman pushed a tackle too hard. This could have gone unnoticed but not just under the eyes of the referee: “With the red card, it was even more difficult and Naples mastered” continues Oliver Glasner who does not dispute the expulsion of his striker. “We have to accept the red card. Kolo will focus on the next Bundesliga matches” Kevin Trapp, goalkeeper and captain of Eintracht Frankfurt and ex-PSG says a little differently: “I saw the action again, he touches him on the foot, but I finds it hard in this situation, because he wanted to take the ball. It’s a very, very tough decision.”
However, he does not call into question the victory of the Italians. “We played against a very good team, against the probable future champion of Italy. It’s a quality team. But we still had a good game. When you play 25 minutes (in reality more than 35 min) in numerical inferiority against such a team, inevitably it is complicated. It’s not a good result, but we can turn the situation around. We know that we have already managed to return matches in the past. »
A forecast noted by Italian coach Luciano Spalletti: “Let’s stay calm, very calm. There is still a rematch. We have to play it first. We have a good lead, but everything is back to zero. There have already been situations in football, there may be a small detail that tilts the match to another side. We had a good game today. We took the meeting wanting to win it. We could have scored the third goal, there were good things, others not so much. »