With his club's return to European football after seven years, Eintracht Frankfurt's Alexander Meier has also returned to centre stage and is enjoying every minute of it. The full interview will be published on Thursday in the Maccabi Tel Aviv-Eintracht Frankfurt match programme
Seven years have passed since Eintracht Frankfurt's last appearance in the group stage of the then-called UEFA Cup, seven years of ups and downs, but still only one Alexander Meier. He is the only thread connecting Frankfurt's last European campaign, which ended in three points and a last-place finish in their group, and the present far more successful one. "You can't compare the squad we had then with the one we have now", Meier tells us in the exclusive interview in the official Maccabi Tel Aviv match programme for their Europa League home tie against the Bundesliga stalwarts. "Seven years ago we won automatic promotion to the group stage, this year we worked very hard to get to the Europa League and we're all very excited about it".
Meier and his teammates are expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday to hold a final practice before Thursday's encounter at Bloomfield Stadium. The attacking midfielder is not all that familiar with the Israeli Premier League and last month's match against Maccabi in Frankfurt was his first opportunity to make the acquaintance of the local league leaders. He has however heard a lot of good things about the city Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club call home: "I've never been to Tel Aviv but they say that it's a very international city with a very "liberal" attitude. I do know that a lot of our fans are expected to come to support us here in Tel Aviv and that will definitely help us. What's most important to us is that it will be a good and fair match".
You'll want to read the entire interview, which will appear in the match programme on Thursday. Look out for our hostesses outside the gates and at the merchandise sales points at Bloomfield Stadium and for the price of just 5 shekels purchase your memento of Maccabi's European season and this unforgettable tie with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Photograph courtesy of fnp.de
