Levski Sofia-Eintracht Frankfurt is a match valid for the first leg of the Conference League qualification playoffs and is played Thursday at 7 p.m.: predictions.
Last year’s was a low-key season for Eintracht Frankfurt, unable to finish in the top four in the Bundesliga or bring home a trophy as they did the previous year with their historic Europa League triumph.
Kolo Muani and co. finished only seventh in the league, also losing the German Cup final to Leipzig. They will therefore try their hand at the Conference League for the first time in their history: like all teams participating in the major European leagues, the Adlers will have to go through a preliminary round to enter the group stage. The draw matched them with Bulgarians Levski Sofia, a team that in theory should not give them too much trouble. Eintracht Frankfurt is fresh from their narrow league win (1-0) against newly promoted Darmstadt. And decided, as it happens, by the strong French center forward, at the moment the most decisive and dangerous man of the Rossoneri. Good first for new coach Dino Toppmoller, who before last Sunday on the bench had only served as deputy, first at Leipzig and then at Bayern Munich. For Eintracht, it is the second success of the season: in their first official match, in fact, the Adlers had asphalted Lokomotive Leipzig 7-0 in the German Cup.
Levski Sofia comes to take on the Germans after passing two preliminaries. In the first, Nikolai Kostov’s team had won over Shkupi (2-0 in the first leg and 1-0 in the return).
In the second one they scalped the Israelis of Hapoel Beer Sheva, at the end of a very tight double-header decided in the return leg (2-1) by a Ronaldo goal in the middle of the second half, as extra time seemed inevitable. It should also be mentioned that the Bulgarian league started much earlier than the Bundesliga: Levski Sofia played five matches, in which they collected 9 points (three wins and one loss).
The prediction
Eintracht Frankfurt, despite the fact that Toppmoller has announced several lineup changes, should not commit any missteps against an affordable team like Levski Sofia, likely filing the file already in Bulgaria.
The probable lineups of Levski Sofia-Eintracht Frankfurt
- LEVSKI SOFIA (4-3-3): Andreev; Galchev, Dimitrov, Cordoba, Tsunami; Mitkov, Kraev, Darlan; Ronaldo, Ricardinho, Welton.
- EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (3-4-3): Trapp; Tuta, Koch, William Pacho; Ebimbe, Skhiri, Rode, Max; Gotze, Kolo Muani, Lindstrom.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 0-3