STUTTGART, Germany: 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.
Trailing after a Tiago Tomas goal, the Europa League champions scored two goals in five second-half minutes through Evan Ndicka and Daichi Kamada to turn the game.
France striker Randal Kolo Muani was brought down in the box with 15 minutes remaining and converted the penalty.
Stuttgart’s Enzo Millot pulled one back but the home side were reduced to 10 men shortly after when Borna Sosa picked up a second yellow.
Frankfurt survived a VAR review for a handball in the penalty area in the seventh minute of injury time to remain on track for a sixth German Cup title.
Frankfurt manager Oliver Glasner admitted his team “were lucky today,” telling Germany’s ARD network “I’m crazily happy and proud of the boys.”
“We’re very happy to be going to Berlin.”
Stuttgart goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow said his side’s “disappointment is huge,” complaining “the ball clearly hit the arm” of a Frankfurt player in the final seconds.
“With a little bit of luck we’d get the penalty, we’d shoot 3-3 and it’d go into extra time.”
Despite sitting just one spot above the Bundesliga relegation spots on goal difference, hosts Stuttgart came into the match unbeaten in five games under new manager Sebastian Hoeness.
Ninth in the league, Frankfurt arrived amid a terrible run of form, with only one win in 11 matches since being eliminated from the Champions League by Napoli.
Tomas gave Stuttgart the lead after 18 minutes, smashing the ball past goalie Kevin Trapp at the near post after collecting a cutback from Josha Vagnoman.
Frankfurt emerged from the half-time break a different side and took the lead five minutes in, Kolo Muani finding Ndicka in the box who hammered a low finish to equalize.
Kamada made it two five minutes later with a solo effort, beating several Stuttgart defenders before placing the ball into the left-hand corner.
With 15 minutes remaining, Stuttgart pushed several players forward looking for an equalizer, but the ball fell fortunately for Kamada who ran 50 meters before finding Kolo Muani, who was felled in the box by goalie Fabian Bredlow.
Bredlow escaped with a yellow card but Kolo Muani converted the penalty to give the visitors a 3-1 lead.
The France striker now has 21 goals in 41 games for Frankfurt.
With the home fans in full voice, Stuttgart’s frustrations rose, with Sosa yellow carded for kicking the ball away.
Millot scored a deflected goal for the home side soon after but Sosa picked up a second yellow with four remaining for sinking his studs into the foot of Aurelio Buta.
Stuttgart pushed for a late equalizer and had a corner with 15 seconds remaining in injury time and claimed a handball, but the incident survived a VAR review.
Frankfurt, who last won the title in 2018 with a 3-1 win over Bayern Munich, will meet Leipzig, who dispatched Freiburg 5-1 on Tuesday, on June 3 in the German capital.
Frankfurt into German Cup final after comeback win over Stuttgart
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Frankfurt into German Cup final after comeback win over Stuttgart
- Frankfurt survived a VAR review for a handball in the penalty area in the seventh minute of injury time to remain on track for a sixth German Cup title
Hosts Morocco off to winning start at Africa Cup of Nations
- Soufiane Rahimi had a penalty saved in a frustrating first half for much-fancied Morocco
- Win saw Morocco, Africa’s best team in FIFA rankings in 11th place, to extend world-record winning run to 19 consecutive matches
RABAT: Brahim Diaz and Ayoub El-Kaabi scored second-half goals as hosts Morocco got their Africa Cup of Nations bid off to a winning start by beating minnows Comoros 2-0 in the tournament’s opening game on Sunday.
Soufiane Rahimi had a penalty saved in a frustrating first half for much-fancied Morocco, but Diaz fired home from inside the area 10 minutes after the interval at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in the capital Rabat.
Substitute El-Kaabi then got the second with a stunning overhead kick, and the victory on a wet and cold night sets the Atlas Lions up for the potentially tougher tests to come in Group A against Mali and Zambia.
The result also allowed Morocco, Africa’s best team in the FIFA rankings in 11th place, to extend their world-record winning run to 19 consecutive matches.
The game was played out before a crowd of 60,180, with Moroccan Crown Prince Moulay Hassan — who appeared on the pitch ahead of kick-off — and FIFA president Gianni Infantino among those in attendance.
Morocco’s star man and captain Achraf Hakimi also ended up watching the entire game from the bench, with coach Walid Regragui preserving the Paris Saint-Germain full-back who has not played since suffering an ankle injury with his club at the start of November.
It looked set to be a long night for Comoros when Morocco won a penalty in the 10th minute as playmaker Diaz was tripped inside the box by Iyad Mohamed.
But Rahimi’s spot-kick was kept out by the legs of Yannick Pandor as the Comoros goalkeeper dived to his right, and the visitors then succeeded in thwarting their more illustrious hosts for the remainder of the first half.
- Stunning overhead kick -
However Morocco, who also saw veteran center-back Romain Saiss come off injured early on, succeeded in breaking down their opponents after half-time.
Comoros, the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago who are 108th in the world rankings, had their resistance ended as the opening goal arrived on 55 minutes.
Manchester United’s Noussair Mazraoui, starting at right-back with Hakimi not yet quite fully fit, picked up the ball on the right side of the penalty area and squared for Real Madrid’s Spanish-born number 10 Diaz to score.
Morocco, who had seen Neil El Aynaoui almost break the deadlock just before that, then saw space open up although Comoros had a chance of their own as Rafiki Said was denied when clean through on goal.
Mazraoui forced a good save from Pandor before El-Kaabi, of Greek giants Olympiakos, lit up the occasion by meeting a cross in from the left by Anass Salah-Eddine with a magnificent overhead bicycle kick to make it 2-0.
Morocco’s next game will be on Friday against Mali, who begin their campaign by taking on Zambia in Casablanca on Monday.
Elsewhere on Monday, South Africa face Angola in Marrakech before Mohamed Salah’s Egypt — the record seven-time African champions chasing a first title since 2010 — get their bid up and running against outsiders Zimbabwe in Agadir in Group B.
This latest edition of the Cup of Nations is the first to start in one year and end in another, with the final to take place in Rabat on January 18.
