Eintracht Frankfurt’s Robin Koch speaks on new leadership role and Champions League aspirations

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·11 April 2025

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Robin Koch speaks on new leadership role and Champions League aspirations

Much like his head coach, Eintracht Frankfurt defender Robin Koch found it quite the task to defend against Europa League opponents Tottenham Hotspur last night. The Bundesliga UEL representatives found themselves lucky in many respects to escape with a 1-1 draw. Frankfurt’s captain spoke on the difficulties in his post match interview with RTL.

“It was a tough game,” Koch said. “Tottenham have a lot of quality, especially up front. We were a bit too passive in the second half. We could have done a lot more going forward and done more to bring the game under control. It was nevertheless clear that we would be pinned back here.

“We can breathe a sigh of relief after surviving sustained spells of pressure,” Koch continued. “We had to run and fight much more today against a quality opponent and we did so.”

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When it came time to discuss his leadership role on the pitch, Koch seemed very comfortable talking about the captain’s armband he’s temporarily inherited from injured keeper Kevin Trapp. In conducting an interview with Kicker earlier this week, the Kaiserslautern-native also sounded very much like the man to take the team forward, possibly to another Europa League title.

“I have to praise the entire team for the way we’ve absorbed the departure of Omar Marmoush,” Koch said in the Monday interview. “It wasn’t easy to match Omar’s numbers [20 goals and 14 assists] from the first half of the season, but we’ve had a lot of guys who stepped up and picked up the slack. “Last season there were lots of changes and a lot of things had to be worked out and settled,” Koch continued on Monday. “Now the automatisms are working better. It’s better not to lose players like Omar every six months, but we’re managing. “When I came to Frankfurt, I said that I wanted to play in the Champions League,” Koch concluded on Monday. “Now I feel vindicated because we have the quality to get there. This year is our chance. We have to do everything we can to take it.“

The away draw in the opening leg of the Europa quarterfinal tie certainly constitutes a big step in the right direction. Eintracht have a chance to qualify for the UCL both via the table and – as they did in the 2022/23 season under Oliver Glasner – as Europa League winners.

Koch spoke on both his duty to lead and the hopes of advancing the semis via a home win in his RTL interview.

“For myself as a veteran [28-year-old] captain, it’s important to lead the way and elevate the younger lads [five Eintracht starters in the starting XI were 22-years-of-age or younger,” Koch noted. “It was a cool game today. Hopefully it will be even cooler next week at home.“

GGFN | Peter Weis