VfB Stuttgart 2-3 Eintracht Frankfurt
(Tomas 19', Millot 83' – Ndicka 51', Kamada 55', Kolo Muani pen 77')
Neckarstadion, Stuttgart

One year ago this week, Eintracht Frankfurt were preparing for a Europa League semifinal second leg against West Ham United, en route to ultimately winning the trophy in Seville.

This year, the Eagles' most realistic chance of returning to any form of European competition next season is to win the German Cup — and they'll have the chance to do so against RB Leipzig in Berlin after coming from behind to beat Stuttgart in dramatic fashion.

Without a win in nine Bundesliga games and deservedly a goal down at halftime in the DFB Pokal semifinal, Frankfurt's season looked like going the same way as the away end at kickoff: up in smoke.

Without the prospect of European football, striking starlet Randal Kolo Muani would surely be accompanying midfielder Daichi Kamada out of the door, while the doubts over Europa League-winning head coach Oliver Glasner would only have increased.

All of those discussions have now been postponed until June and Glasner instead found himself explaining why his celebratory white cup final t-shirt was covered in mud and grass stains.

Oliver Glasner: 'I like being old school'

"Our fans were singing [club anthem] 'Eintracht from the Main' like they always used to do on our Europa League trips, so I went over to them to soak it all up again. It's been a difficult few weeks for us, so I just had to dive on the turf to let it all out."

After amassing just 12 points from 13 league games in 2023, the criticism had been growing.

"Last chance!" headlined Kicker magazine this week, having earlier written: "Glasner's team are rock bottom. In fact, that would actually be a good thing, because Frankfurt's fall seems to have no bottom." In Stuttgart, Glasner hit back.

"If you'd said two years ago that we would be ninth in the Bundesliga and in the cup semifinal having been knocked out of the Champions League in the last-16, that would have been an outstanding season for Eintracht Frankfurt," said the 48-year-old, now in his second major final with the club in his second season.

"That shows how far we've shifted the boundaries in the last two years, to the point where our work, my work, is questioned more, as if it weren't good enough for Eintracht. I don't really understand it, maybe I'm too old school. But I like being old school."

The Cannstatter Cauldron

He will look back fondly on Wednesday night then after his team eventually emerged victorious from an old school cup battle.

Backed by a deafening home crowd, Stuttgart deservedly took a first-half lead through Tiago Tomas, afforded acres of space in the box by a Frankfurt defense which looked slow, lackluster and fearful.

But within 10 minutes of halftime, Evan Ndicka had fired Frankfurt level from Kolo Muani's knock-down, and Kamada had demonstrated the qualities which have seen him attract the attention first of Borussia Dortmund and then of Benfica, where he now appears likely to end up.

The Japanese midfielder first came through a strong challenge to maintain possession on the left wing before cutting inside to shoot low past Fabian Bredlow, who admitted he should have done better.

"We wanted to push up more into those number-eight spaces to ensure that Kolo wasn't isolated up front, and we wanted more depth and width — and all of that is exactly how Daichi scored his goal," explained Glasner, revealing what he'd told his team at halftime, before going on the offensive again:

"We've often been told that Daichi's head is already elsewhere, that Ndicka is no longer fully with us — but it's those two who have scored the goals today," he said, clearly enjoying the relief.

"I'll defend my team, my lads, to the hilt because they're a fantastic group. Ok, sometimes we don't get everything right, not everything always works, but we all give absolutely everything. I'm so proud of the spirit that we've built up over two years, without which we wouldn't have been in two finals."

Glasner: 'We can do finals'

So, is everything rosy again deep in the woods in Frankfurt?

"Not quite," said sporting director Markus Krösche, whose public faith in the team has been notably less than that of Glasner, recently.

"We're not satisfied with the second half of the season. We've not got nearly enough points in the Bundesliga. But one of our aims was to win the cup and now we're in the final."

Awaiting them at the Olympiastadion will be holders RB Leipzig, another team which has endured a disappointing league season but which has turned it on in the cup — most spectacularly with a 5-1 win over Freiburg in the other semifinal.

"We saw RB yesterday and we know what they can do," said Glasner. "But we're a good team. And we can do finals."

His Eintracht Frankfurt team proved that in the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium in Seville last May. Their best way back into the Europa League might now be to repeat the feat in Berlin.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold