EINTRACHT FRANKFURT – HOFFENHEIM | Wednesday 8.30pm
Two joys in the space of just a few days for Eintracht Frankfurt, who, after snatching a pass for the Champions League round of 16 – they will face Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli between February and March – found success again in the Bundesliga, taking three important points at the home of Augsburg. In fact, in the last month Oliver Glasner’s men have shown that they only know how to win: there would have been six victories in a row had it not been for the home defeat against Borussia Dortmund on 29 October. The fourth place, Eintracht’s main goal, has come closer: the Adlers have moved up to fifth place and, in light of the very short league table, on paper they can still have their say in the title fight, even if Bayern Munich seem to want to take the lead.
In order to keep feeding this dream, Eintracht Frankfurt must improve their home performance: so far, the Europa League-winning club have collected more points on the road, with four victories away from Deutsche Bank Park. Andre Breitenreiter’s Hoffenheim, on the other hand, slipped down to tenth place. The Sinsheim team’s last success was about thirty days ago, when they scrambled Schalke 04 at home. Since then it has been almost exclusively disappointment for Kramaric and his team-mates: apart from the away draw with Cologne, there have been two home defeats without appeal against Bayern Munich (0-2) and Leipzig (1-3).
Hoffenheim’s Nsoki
The Prediction
You can’t go against Eintracht Frankfurt right now, despite the fact that Hoffenheim are a good team and would have everything to take away at least a point from the away match at Deutsche Bank Park. For those who don’t feel like putting their faith in Oliver Glasner’s Adler, Napoli’s next opponent in the Champions League round of 16, they can go for the goals: altogether there could be at least three.
Eintracht Frankfurt-Hoffenheim likely line-up
- EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (3-4-2-1): Trapp; Tuta, Jakic, Ndicka; Knauff, Dina Ebimbe, Sow, Pellegrini; Lindström, Götze; Kolo Muani.
- HOFFENHEIM (3-4-1-2): Baumann; Kabak, Vogt, Nsoki; Skov, Geiger, Baumgartner, Angelino; Kramaric; Bruun Larsen, Rutter.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
