Patzen verkaterte Frankfurter auch gegen den Ex-Coach?
It’s done! Eintracht Frankfurt are through to the final of the Europa League and will battle Glasgow Rangers on 18 May for the title and the right to play in the 2022/23 Champions League group stage.
Chapeau, dear Eagle Bearers!
In addition to the outstanding fans, who prepared a choreo that was very much worth seeing and caused the obligatory storm of the pitch after the final whistle, there were also several deserving personalities from the past in the VIP stand.
One of them: Adi Hütter. Whether the ex-coach accepted the SGE’s invitation to keep his fingers crossed for a place in the final or to gain important insights for his Gladbach team’s upcoming away game next Sunday is not known.
Nearly 72 hours after the highlight against the Hammers, Eintracht are already back in Bundesliga action. Although both teams have failed to live up to their own expectations at national level this season, the ambition is naturally to win the encounter on Sunday afternoon. If we believe the odds between Frankfurt and Gladbach, the home side has the slightly better cards. However, this is a risky assessment.
Frankfurt – statistics & current form
The fairytale of Frankfurt Eintracht gets the final furioso it deserves in the Europa League. On Wednesday, 18 May, tens of thousands of fans from the financial metropolis will make their way to support their team in the final against Glasgow Rangers in Seville. Even coach Oliver Glasner was unable to make a reliable statement immediately after the final whistle about how the SGE would manage to get through the two Bundesliga matches without being accused of distorting the competition.
The run at international level has long since overshadowed the poor performance in the league. Only in the event of a title win in the second most important European club competition would the Hessians again be represented in the European Cup in the coming season, then even in the top flight. In the top flight of German football, however, the Eagles are more than ten points off a place in the top seven. The most they can realistically hope for is a ninth-place finish.
Frankfurt winless in the league for weeks
However, considering their recent performances in the league, we wouldn’t make a prediction on the home win before Frankfurt’s clash against Gladbach. Glasner’s team is now winless in six games (three draws, three defeats). Since Matchday 27, only Hoffenheim and Bielefeld have recorded fewer points than Eintracht, who also have a surprisingly poor home record.
Only four of the 16 Bundesliga games played in front of a home crowd were victorious. In total, only 18 meagre points were scored, which puts the Black-Red-Whites in third-last place in the home table. The offensive output is particularly tragic, as the 19 goals scored are also only undercut by Fürth and Bielefeld.
Seldom many goals in front of their own fans
Also in recent weeks, things have not been going well at all offensively. In four of the aforementioned six games without a win, Kostic and Co. even failed to score a goal of their own. Only in one home match did the Eagles score more than two goals (5:2 vs. Leverkusen). In fact, in only three cases would the bet have gone for more than three goals in the course of the match in front of a home crowd. This is one of the reasons why we were very surprised that such high odds were offered for the under 3.5 bet between Frankfurt and Gladbach.
In terms of personnel, it remains to be seen how the players will cope with the semi-final second leg. The regeneration time is short, so changes in the starting eleven are definitely conceivable. However, we think it is unlikely that Oliver Glasner will again send a B-team onto the pitch in the prestige duel against Adi Hütter, as he did in the last 0:2 in Leverkusen.
Predicted Frankfurt line-up:
Trapp – Tuta, Touré, Ndicka – Jakic, Sow – Knauff, Kostic – Hauge, Kamada – Borré
Last matches played by Frankfurt:
Bundesliga
08/05/2022 – Eintracht Frankfurt 1 – 1 Gladbach
Europa League Final Stage
06/05/2022 – Eintracht Frankfurt 1 – 0 West Ham
Bundesliga
03/05/2022 – Bayer Leverkusen 2 – 0 Eintracht Frankfurt
Europa League Final Stage
29/04/2022 – West Ham 1 – 2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Bundesliga
23/04/2022 – Eintracht Frankfurt 2 – 2 Hoffenheim
Gladbach – Statistics & current form
While Eintracht are already playing their third competitive match within six days, it is the second match this week for Borussia from Mönchengladbach. After the surprising home win against RB Leipzig on Monday evening, when Hütter’s team once again showed their best side, they now want to confirm this performance and go on a cuddle with their own supporters for the final spurt in the Bundesliga.
On a positive note, the Foals have picked up seven points from their last three away games and have now scored at least twice in four consecutive away games. In view of this, we wouldn’t be at all averse to betting on double chance X2 in the Frankfurt vs Gladbach clash on Sunday afternoon. The implied underdog role – based purely on the results in the league – is not necessarily understandable.
Are Hütter and Gladbach slowly finding each other?
In general, the team from the Lower Rhine is in good shape. Only one defeat in the last seven Bundesliga matches reads just as positively as the fact that keeper Yann Sommer has conceded a maximum of one goal in five of the last seven matches. The Swiss even kept his clean sheet three times, which can sometimes be cited as an argument for a match with a maximum of three goals in the course of play. Since matchday 26, only Bayern and Cologne have collected more points in the top flight than Borussia.
Breel Embolo is undoubtedly partly responsible for the rising form curve. In his last six Bundesliga games, the attacker has scored five times. Since matchday 26, he has scored as many goals as a certain Robert Lewandowski or Erling Haaland. The fact that Embolo has only scored eight goals in total, however, serves as a reflection of the Foals’ season. There is simply a lack of consistency over a longer period of time.
Predicted line-up of Gladbach:
Sommer – Beyer, Friedrich, Bensebaini – Lainer, Kramer, Neuhaus, Netz – Hofmann, Stindl – Embolo
Last games played by Gladbach:
Bundesliga
08/05/2022 – Eintracht Frankfurt 1 – 1 Gladbach
03/05/2022 – Gladbach 3 – 1 RB Leipzig
23/04/2022 – SC Freiburg 3 – 3 Gladbach
16/04/2022 – Gladbach 1 – 3 1. FC Köln
09/04/2022 – Greuther Fürth 0 – 2 Gladbach
Frankfurt – Gladbach Direct comparison / H2H-Balance
This is the 96th time the two clubs have faced each other in Germany’s top division. With 35 wins compared to 33 defeats and 27 draws, Eintracht Frankfurt are just ahead in the direct comparison.
In the recent past, however, Borussia has usually had the upper hand. Under the management of former coach Adi Hütter, Frankfurt lost four of the last six duels. In the first leg, the SGE won 3:2. But: Since January 2018, the Foals have not lost a single away game in Frankfurt’s Stadtwald and have still recorded five points from the past three guest games.
Frankfurt – Gladbach Tip
The pairing of Frankfurt against Gladbach has its own special appeal due to the personnel of Adi Hütter. After many SGE supporters were eager to “get one over on the former coach” in the first leg, the second leg on Sunday has a different meaning in that since Thursday evening the Hessians have only had the Europa League final on 18 May on their minds. Nevertheless, Eintracht could overtake the Rhinelanders again with a home win.
In the ecstasy of joy, however, all this seems merely incidental. The biggest challenge for Oliver Glasner will be to somehow get the team ready for this match, but at the same time to control the load. Recently, the Frankfurt team has not been able to do this at all. Six winless games in a row in the Bundesliga speak for themselves. The Europa League finalists have even failed to score four times.
Gladbach, on the other hand, have recovered somewhat, losing only one of their last seven Bundesliga matches and showing a good face especially away from home with seven points from three games. It is therefore all the more surprising that Frankfurt are favourites against Gladbach according to the betting odds. For the SGE, it would be the first home win against Borussia after three previous winless matches in front of a home crowd.
