Eintracht Frankfurt came from a goal down to book a date with RB Leipzig in the German Cup final with a 3-2 win over Stuttgart on Wednesday.
The defending winners of the Europa League were behind the game when Tiago Tomas scored, but Evan Ndicka and Daichi Kamada scored two goals in the first five minutes of the second half to turn the game around.
After being taken down inside the penalty area with fifteen minutes left, France striker Randal Kolo Muani successfully converted the penalty.
Enzo Millot scored a goal for Stuttgart, but not long after that, Borna Sosa was given a second yellow card and the home team was reduced to 10 men.
In the seventh minute of injury time, the VAR ruled that there was a handball in the penalty area, but Frankfurt was not penalized, so they are still in contention to win their sixth German Cup.
Oliver Glasner, the manager of Frankfurt, acknowledged that his squad “were lucky today,” telling ARD, a German television network, “I’m crazy happy and proud of the boys.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to be going to Berlin!”
Fabian Bredlow, the goalkeeper for Stuttgart, said that his team’s “disappointment is huge” and complained that “the ball clearly hit the arm” of a Frankfurt player in the last seconds of the match.
“If we had any luck at all, we’d get the penalty, we’d shoot 3-3, and the game would go into overtime.”
Frankfurt back in form
In spite of the fact that they were just one position and one goal differential above the relegation areas in the Bundesliga, the hosts Stuttgart entered the match undefeated in their previous five games under new manager Sebastian Hoeness.
Frankfurt, now in ninth place in the league, came to this match in the midst of a poor run of form, having won just one of their previous eleven matches since being ousted from the Champions League by Napoli.
After 18 minutes of play, Tomas gave Stuttgart the lead when he smashed the ball past goalkeeper Kevin Trapp at the near post after receiving a cutback from Josha Vagnoman.
Frankfurt came out of the halftime break as a different team and seized the lead five minutes into the second half when Kolo Muani found Ndicka in the box, and Ndicka smashed a low finish to even the score.
After another five minutes, Kamada scored the second goal on his own, beating several defenders for Stuttgart before placing the ball in the bottom left corner of the net.
In the last 15 minutes of the match, Stuttgart pushed numerous players forward in an attempt to score an equalizer. However, the ball dropped advantageously for Kamada, who sprinted fifty meters before finding Kolo Muani, who was brought down inside the box by goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow.
Bredlow was only given a yellow card, but Kolo Muani made the conversion from the penalty spot to give the away team a 3-1 lead.
The striker from France has already scored 21 goals for Frankfurt in 41 total matches.
Stuttgart’s anger grew to the point where Sosa was given a yellow card for kicking the ball away when the home supporters were in full shout.
Soon after that, Millot scored a goal for the home team that was assisted by a deflection. However, Sosa was shown a second yellow card with four minutes left on the clock for putting his studs into the foot of Aurelio Buta.
Stuttgart made a late drive for an equalizer and got a corner kick with 15 seconds left in injury time. They also claimed that there was a handball committed, but a VAR review determined that there was not enough evidence to support their allegation.
On June 3, in the German capital, Frankfurt will face Leipzig, who defeated Freiburg 5-1 on Tuesday. Frankfurt’s most recent championship victory came in 2018 with a 3-1 victory against Bayern Munich. Leipzig defeated Freiburg 5-1.