“Brother, hit the ball long!” This line, which Ante Rebic drilled into Kevin-Prince Boateng at the hotel in Berlin and on the way to the Olympiastadion, swiftly gained cult status and made Rebic a cup hero on 19 May 2018. “When we were studying videos of Bayern games, I noticed that their centre-backs always push up and we could get in behind them relatively easily,” the Croatian revealed later on. “That was ideal because we have some quick players in attack – like me.”
That was exactly how he scored the opening goal in the 11th minute of the DFB Cup final, initiating a shock 3-1 win for the underdogs over Bayern Munich. Robert Lewandowski equalised for Bayern but in the 82nd minute, Danny da Costa hit the ball long, Rebic raced through again and made it 2-1. Mijat Gacinovic sealed the victory in added time, running 70 metres up the pitch before finishing into an empty net.
“Winning the cup was the best moment of the year,” says Rebic to this day. Eintracht Frankfurt were German cup winners for the first time in 30 years and for the fifth time in their history. As David Abraham and Alex Meier hoisted the trophy together, the emotions poured out among those in white. Thousands of fans sang about playing in Europe next season, while board member Fredi Bobic declared: “The bank towers in Frankfurt will be shaking.”
Desire carries Eintracht through
The cup triumph more than made up for what was a disappointing end to the Eagles’ 2017/18 Bundesliga campaign. Niko Kovac’s side won just one of their final seven league games, a 3-0 victory over Hamburger SV, which saw them drop to eighth place and out of the European places. They had run out of gas, but the incredible desire that this team possess brought them to Berlin.
Heroes’ welcome
On the day after the cup success in Berlin, the team were welcomed back to Frankfurt by a huge crowd of around 100,000 people. The open-top bus parade made its way very slowly from the airport to Römerberg – which had to be closed hours before the team’s arrival due to the hordes of people – before the traditional celebration on the balcony of the city hall, where the departing Kovac shouted to the fans: “I can’t put into words how proud I am. This is for you.”
