Strength. Control. Technique. Randal Kolo Muani rolled defender Goncalo Inacio, brought the ball under his spell with his chest, and unleashed an explosive volley across keeper Antonio Adan and into the bottom corner in one fluid movement. It was a strike of exquisite quality, flipping this game and group on its head.
The goal instantly sent Sporting spiraling from the top to the bottom of this wide open Group D and wrote a new chapter in Frankfurt’s history. At 1-1, a return to the Europa League, the tournament they famously won last season, beckoned. But Muani’s strike ensured Frankfurt’s Champions League adventure will extend into a second Act.
Muani’s acquisition from French side Nantes has turned out to be a masterstroke. The 23-year-old is already the Bundesliga’s top assister with nine to his name already. But this kid from the Paris suburb of Bondy has many facets to his game, one of which is his instinctive eye for goal, which has kept Oliver Glasner’s side rubbing shoulders with Europe’s elite for a little while longer.
Rode brings ‘stability’
Muani’s finish was the gloss on a battling performance by Frankfurt in Lisbon, with Sebastian Rode coming off the bench at half-time and producing a combative but controlled display that swayed the contest into the visitors’ favor. The former Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund midfielder drew on his experience, delivering performance that secured him man of the match, a rare feat for a substitute, as Frankfurt turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win.
“He’s the captain of the team, the head of the team,” goalkeeper Kevin Trapp told DAZN. “He only came on for the second half, so you have to manage that first. But he brought in an incredible amount of stability. Gave the team calm in every duel. And he deserved that today.”
Rode himself was typically humble in his post match appraisal, giving the credit to Frankfurt coach Glasner for making the change: “A good coach always has something in mind when he brings someone in. And when it works so well, it’s all the nicer. That that. I’m just immensely happy when we’re in the round of 16.”
‘More mature, much calmer’
Trapp had been left wrong-footed when Arthur had put Sporting ahead a few minutes before half-time. But Daichi Kamada’s cool penalty restored parity before Muani delivered the killer blow — and Trapp believes that this game demonstrated how the team has grown.
“That’s what I said yesterday in the press conference, that we have grown as a team, we are more consolidated and but also as individual players. And if you see how we dealt with the deficit today and how we dealt with the setback in the first game against Sporting, that’s already a big difference,” Trapp added. “We’re more mature, much calmer – and that’s what we’ve already been doing for the last few weeks.”
Frankfurt’s victory wasn’t quite enough to see them top the group, with Tottenham Hotspur scoring an injury time winner in Marseille, but to reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League is huge progress for this set of players under this coach, and just the latest chapter in Frankfurt’s European adventure.
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