BERLIN, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Daichi Kamada provided a hat-rick to smooth they way for a 4-1 victory over RB Salzburg at the first leg in Europa League's round of the last 32 on Thursday.
The "Eagles" staged a clinical chance conversion and scored four goals within 56 minutes to take a 4-1 advantage into into the second leg at Salzburg next Thursday.
Frankfurt grabbed a bright start on home soil as they needed only 12 minutes to break the deadlock after Kamada nutmegged goalkeeper Cican Stankovic following a through ball from Almamy Toure.
The host gained momentum and created more chances through Kamada, who tested Stankovic from tight angle with 21 minutes played before Filip Kostic pulled just wide at the half-hour mark nine minutes later.
Salzburg showed a vital sign in the 35th minute when Enock Mwepu effort from inside the box had to be defused by defender David Abraham.
Adi Hutter's men cut a better figure in front of the target as Kamada made the most out of Djibril Sow's pass into path after shrugging off one defender before chipping the ball over onrushing Stankovic in the 43rd minute.
After the restart, Eintracht started where they left off and made it 3-0 on the scoreboards as Ndicka Evan's pinpoint cross allowed Kamada to nod home his hat rick with 53 minutes into the game.
Things went from bad to worse for Salzburg when Filip Kostic benefitted on Andre Silva's build-up work to extend the lead only three minutes later.
The fourth goal took the wind out of Salzburg's sails but for all that they were able to score their consolation as Sow brought down Andreas Ulmer inside the box.
Hee-Chan Hwang stepped up and made no mistake to convert the subsequent penalty in the 85th minute.
"I am not satisfied. I don't know why our performance was so weak. We weren't aggressive enough on the pitch," Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch said.
"We have reaped a deserved win. We should have scored more goals but I am happy with our performance. That was the best performance of the season so far," Frankfurt coach Adi Hutter said.
