Eintracht suffer friendly defeat

Head coach Niko Arnautis handed debuts to summer arrivals Amanda Ilestedt, Rebecka Blomqvist and Noemi Ivelj, the latter of whom was facing her former club, who finished fifth in Switzerland’s Women’s Super League last season.

Furthermore, Dilara Acikgöz made her comeback in the starting XI after recovering from a cruciate ligament injury, while trialist Eleni Markou was given another chance to show what she can do, forming a central defensive pairing with Ilestedt in the first half.  

Squandered chances

After a hard-fought first half ended goalless, Arnautis introduced Pia Wolter, Géraldine Reuteler, Lisanne Gräwe, Jella Veit and Laura Freigang, among others, for the second period. Although Eintracht created several opportunities to find the net, they were unable to do so, meaning an effort from Nicole Arcangeli (56’) was enough to give the Swiss side a slender victory.

“Every match helps” 

“We had an intensive week, which you could see during the game,” said Arnautis afterwards. “It was a good friendly for us to continue working on our patterns of play. Of course, things aren’t quite as we’d like them to be yet, but over the next three weeks we’ll be working on that with the full squad and continuing to integrate our new players. Every match helps in that sense. Ultimately, these games are important steps on the way to where we want to be. It’s in our DNA to want to win matches, but today the result was definitely of secondary importance.”