Frankfurt lose as Oliver Glasner rests four key players for West Ham semi-final

Eintracht Frankfurt lose as manager Oliver Glasner rests four key players ahead of the West Ham semi-final second leg.

The Hammers will head out to Germany this week looking to overturn the 2-1 defeat at the London Stadium.

David Moyes admitted his big fear is having to chase the game against a Frankfurt side renowned for their counter attacking quality.

But West Ham only actually need one goal for the chance to get to the final.

That would even the scores up on aggregate. And with the away goals rule having been abolished, that would give West Ham extra-time to find another goal or the chances to go through on penalties too.

Ahead of – and after – the first leg, many fans and pundits cited the fact Frankfurt had an extra day of rest over West Ham as a big advantage as the German’s recorded that 2-1 away win.

Now the roles are reversed.

West Ham played Arsenal at home at 4.30pm on Sunday but Frankfurt faced Bayer Leverkusen on Monday night, giving the Hammers the advantage of an extra day of rest.

The match in Leverkusen saw Frankfurt lose 2-0 as Oliver Glasner rested four key players for the West Ham semi-final second leg on Thursday night.

Paulinho and West Ham striker target Patrick Schick got the goals for Leverkusen as Glasner rested key stars Djibril Sow, Daichi Kamada, Almany Toure and Rafael Borre.

Glasner also withdrew star playmaker Filip Kostic at half-time.

It is fine margins at this level. And if West Ham were sluggish with a day less rest in the first leg, it could be a major advantage over Frankfurt with the roles reversed for the second leg.

Especially if the game does end up going to extra-time where fatigue could literally decide the tie as we have seen so many times before in football.

West Ham can also take great heart from the fact they created 15 chances in the first leg against the Bundesliga outfit.

But like David Moyes, Glasner has elected to rest players for the semi-final so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Moyes will undoubtedly be studying how Leverkusen set up against Frankfurt for any clues as to how the Hammers can approach the second leg.

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