Cologne-Eintracht Frankfurt is a match on the 20th day of the Bundesliga and is played on Saturday at 6:30pm: TV, likely lineups, predictions.
Cologne started 2024 with a brand new coach: it’s Timo Schultz, former St. Pauli and Basel coach, who took over from the exonerated Steffen Baumgart in early January. With him on the bench the Billy Goats have returned to “breathe,” getting 2 positive results in three league days (draws with Heidenheim and Wolfsburg) but still no victory has come: the three points continue to be as lacking as air, since since October onwards Cologne has managed to get the better of only the tail-end Darmstadt.
The point won at home by Wolfsburg at least moved the standings but, after Union Berlin’s success against Darmstadt, the gap between third-last and fourth-last place widened further (4 points). The red-and-whites have barely totaled 12 in 19 games-the last time they won so few, in the 2017-18 season, they eventually relegated sadly to the Zweite Liga. Among the main problems Schultz has to deal with is an attack that continues to struggle mightily. Cologne’s is, to date, the least prolific in the Bundesliga with only 12 goals scored.
Eintracht is on the upswing
The risk of cashing in another home defeat – it would be the second consecutive after the 4-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund – is very high in the match with the reborn Eintracht Frankfurt.
Dino Toppmoller’s Rossoneri, after an anonymous and disappointing start to the season, have decided to intervene in the market, acquiring Dutch midfielder van de Beek, who arrived from Manchester United, and Austrian center forward Kalajdzic, who was making the bench at Wolverhampton, also in the Premier League. Eintracht is unbeaten for four games (three wins and a draw) and comes from a narrow success against Mainz, downed thanks to a Gotze goal (1-0). which allowed them to move to -2 from fifth-placed Leipzig.
The prediction
An easy match only on paper for Eintracht Frankfurt, which will face a team hungry for salvation points. By the way, the Rossoneri haven’t returned with the three points from the away match in Cologne since way back in 2017. However, if the goal is to make up ground against the direct competitors for a Champions League spot, these are matches that cannot be missed: the total goals could be more than two.
The likely lineups for Cologne-Eintracht Frankfurt
COLONIA (4-2-3-1): Schwäbe; Carstensen, Hübers, Chabot, Finkgräfe; Huseinbašić, Martel; Ljubicic, Kainz, Alidou; Thielmann.
EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (3-4-2-1): Trapp; Tuta, Koch, Smolčić; Dina Ebimbe, Götze, Larsson, Nkounkou; Knauff, van de Beek; Kalajdžić.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
