Frankfurt at home always works

 Yesterday was an important home victory for the Werkself against our favourite home opponent of the last few years, Eintracht Frankfurt, in the fight for Europe. For a long time it was a good game by our team, even if the 1:0 only came in the 70th minute. And with the quality of the opposing strikers, who are always good for a goal, it was important that Alario made it 2-0 ten minutes before the end.

This consolidates our sixth place. Even though we didn't expect to drop so far on Christmas Eve, it was important to freeze the 4-point lead against Union and Gladbach behind us. There are still nine points to be awarded and the goal difference is still in our favour. So that can work out. To do that, it's important to gather all our strength in the upcoming break and then get a three-point win in Bremen, even if they'll probably change coaches by then after seven defeats in a row.

Spanked prevented

With a 0:2 defeat at Bayern, you can't and won't be satisfied, of course. After a quarter of an hour and two goals against, I had the feeling that the Werkself would get a mighty thrashing and a high defeat would be imminent. But thank goodness this scenario didn't come to pass. What remains, however, is the fact that our team once again failed to score a goal away from home.

Next Saturday then comes another "final", when the previous fourth from Frankfurt is a guest in the BayArena. The math is simple. Anything but a home win is a setback for us. However, I must not and will not be blinded by the high cup home victory in January against Eintracht, because the current constellation is completely different. We can look forward to it.

Important derby win against Cologne

Even with new coach Funkel, FC once again failed to win a point against the Werkself. Exactly this Friedhelm Funkel, who in his time had been sacked after a 0:3 against Leverkusen in Düsseldorf and said under coach that this was his last coaching station in life. History repeats itself with yesterday's 0:3 of the Effzeh in Leverkusen.

Now we can take it easy in the English week and go to Bayern, who are good at the moment but not an overachieving team. And if we still want to do well, we have to play Frankfurt next week, who I think are going through what Gladbach have been going through in the last few weeks after the coach discussion. There's bound to be something for the Werkself.

And one more thing without rehashing the topic: Some comments after the game are superfluous and don't belong there, dear Friedhelm Funkel.

Tired point gain

The positive news from last night's tired 0-0 draw in Hoffenheim is that the defence was extremely solid and allowed almost nothing. However, and this is the other side of the coin, the offensive had no penetrating power at all. So the Werkself has to live with the 0:0, even if the point gain is less than what everyone expected.

Four points with a new coach are good, but not very good. But it's all worth nothing if we don't beat Cologne next Saturday. Especially with a new coach, the Geißböcke can really catch their breath, but we have to avoid that at all costs.

Mandatory victory - no more

It was a must-win for the Werkself against the relegation candidate number 1 from Schalke - nothing more. In a tough game, the dominant Werkself showed efficiency, exactly what has been missing in recent weeks. So we quickly put a check mark under the game, look forward to the three points and hope that the playful brilliance of the first half of the season will soon return.