Knauff and Trapp in ectasy after dramatic win: "These are the nights we play football for!"
After missing two scoring chances of his own, a relieved Eintracht winger Ansgar Knauff was full of glee at his squad's dramatic advancement to the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday evening.
Keeper Kevin Trapp also found himself caught up in what was an extraordinarily special moment for his team.
After missing two early key opportunities, Germany U21 international Ansgar Knauff could have well seen the blame pinned on him if Eintracht Frankfurt failed against Real Betis at home on Thursday night. Instead, the Dortmund loanee got a chance to reflect on perhaps the most emotional night in his young career.
Keeper Kevin Trapp also found himself caught up in what was an extraordinarily special moment for his team.
Martin Hinteregger's shoulder-in of a Filip Kostic free-kick at 120+1 ensured that the German Eagles were able to book passage to the Europa League quarterfinals. The late tally actually counted as the latest goal scored in all of Europa League history.
"This is obviously what makes football so beautiful," the 20-year-old remarked afterwards, "to win the game like this. Everyone is going crazy. The whole stadium is going crazy."
"Everyone wants to run onto the pitch and hug each other," the youngster continued, "That's football. That's what we play football for."
SGE keeper Kevin Trapp, interviewed shortly before Knauff, also struggled to find the words for the highly emotional moment. The veteran back-stop actually ended up conveying the exact same ones as Knauff during his remarks.
"It's difficult to put into words," Trapp noted, before adding, "It's just an awesome feeling. These are the nights we play football for. We left it all on the pitch and got it done in the end. We're over the moon to be in the quarterfinals."
The somewhat flustered Knauff found himself a little further flustered by an unexpected guest during his post-match-interview.
Attila so ein Frechdachs 🦅🥸
— Eintracht Frankfurt (@Eintracht) March 17, 2022
–––––#SGEBetis 1:1 | #SGEuropa pic.twitter.com/Khr39f6ySf