BERLIN, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ten-man Eintracht Frankfurt turned around a 1-0 first leg defeat after beating 10-man Strasbourg 3-0 in the second leg of Europa League's playoffs on Thursday.
An own goal from Stefan Mitrovic and second-half goals from Flip Kostic and Danny da Costa smoothed the way for Frankfurt following a rough game with many fouls and two straight red cards.
The "Eagles" started cautiously, knowing that an away goal from Strasbourg would complicate things on home soil.
However, the hosts had to wait until the 28th minute before Stefan Mitrovic accidentally blocked Ante Rebic's square pass into the wrong goal to restore parity on aggregate.
Frankfurt gained momentum and had a good chance to double the lead but Matz Sels tipped Goncalo Paciencia's dangerous header around the left post in the 38th minute.
Even though the hosts were on the front foot, they weakened themselves as Rebic received his marching order following a rude foul in the dying seconds of the first half.
After the restart, both sides staged a ruthless opening period with many fouls at both ends of the pitch.
Strasbourg lost their numerical advantage with 10 minutes into the second half as Dimitri Lienard saw a straight red card for violent conduct to Dominik Kohr.
Adi Hutter's men shocked the visitors moments later as Kostic curled a free kick over the wall to make it 2-0 from 25 meters into the top right corner with 60 minutes played.
Strasbourg wobbled and were unable to respond whereas Frankfurt pressed relentless. The host's' efforts paid off only six minutes after the 2-0 lead, as Danny da Costa capitalized on Daichi Kamada's assist to triple the lead.
With the 3-0 advantage behind, Frankfurt kept all their men behind the ball meanwhile Strasbourg threw everything up front. Nevertheless, Frankfurt stood firm and secured their berth in Europa League's group-stage draw.
"We gave everything. Compliment to my team. Today we reaped the fruit of our labour. It was overall a great game which we won 3-0 against a resilient opponent," Frankfurt head coach Adi Hutter said.
