The 60th Bundesliga season opens its doors
It’s served. The 60th Bundesliga season is just around the corner and will open with a real cracker on Friday evening. The guests at Deutsche Bank Park of Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt will be the record champions from Munich with new stars Sadio Mané and Mathijs de Ligt, starting at 8:30 pm. A great spectacle is expected, especially as two teams with tremendous attacking quality and plenty of confidence face each other.
The fact that the odds are leaning towards Nagelsmann’s side ahead of the Frankfurt vs Bayern match comes as no surprise, given that the reigning title holders have never lost their opening game in the last 20 seasons. Munich alone have now been unbeaten on matchday one for ten seasons. The very dominant first half in the previous week’s Super Cup final against Leipzig should also be a warning for the SGE.
Despite this, we also trust coach Oliver Glasner’s team to play well at home. The squad was sensibly strengthened in the summer, and the Eagles continue to ride the wave of euphoria. Mario Götze and Co. really don’t need to hide, so we can look forward to a lively exchange of blows. A prediction of at least four goals between Frankfurt and Bayern in the course of the match is definitely worth considering and will be supported by further arguments below.
Frankfurt – Statistics & current form
The 2021/22 season will forever go down in the annals of Eintracht Frankfurt. The Hessians sensationally ploughed through the Europa League, not losing any of the 13 matches played in the competition and finally lifting the trophy against Glasgow Rangers in Seville just over two months ago. As a reward for this magnificent triumph, the SGE will be represented in the Champions League group stage at the beginning of September. In addition, the European Super Cup final against Real Madrid is on the agenda next Wednesday.
But before the Frankfurt squad travels to Helsinki to play the highlight match against the royals, the first Bundesliga matchday awaits and there, with FC Bayern, the most difficult of all tasks. Although Eintracht’s role as the underdog in this match is undeniable, there are some things that should encourage the fans of the black and red.
Frankfurt recently with good results against Bayern
For example, the Hessians have won three of their six direct duels with the record champions since the start of the 2019/20 season. Only Borussia Mönchengladbach have recorded more points (10) against the Munich side than the SGE (nine) in this period. Apart from that, the FCB has never lost more often anywhere in history than in Frankfurt’s Stadtwald (23). Added to this is the refuelled self-confidence after the 4:0 cup win in Magdeburg as well as the built-up self-confidence to bring their own style of play onto the pitch even against supposedly better opponents.
Only the weak home record from the previous season causes one or two question marks for Oliver Glasner and his coaching team. Only the relegated Fürth and Bielefeld recorded fewer points at home than Eintracht in 2020/21. Almost 60 years ago, the last time the Adlerträger had a weaker yield in their own stadium.
Does Glasner rely on the switching game against the champions?
Despite this, we are convinced that the self-confident Hessen will throw everything into the scales on Friday evening to start the new season with a coup right away. Especially on the offensive side, coach Glasner has many weapons at his disposal that should cause problems for Munich’s defence, which does not yet appear to be solid. Against this background, we are aiming for at least four goals in the opening match of the Bundesliga between Frankfurt and Bayern.
Buta, Onguene and Smolcic will be missing due to injury. Compared to the cup win against 1. FCM, the Austrian coach could change his team in two or three positions. Sebastian Rode is pushing into the starting eleven as additional cover and Kolo Muani would also be an alternative for Borré in attack, in order to get more speed into the switching actions.
Predicted Frankfurt line-up:
Trapp – Toure, Tuta, Ndicka – Knauff, Sow, Rode, Kostic – Kamada, M. Götze – Lindström
Last matches played by Frankfurt:
DFB Cup
02/08/2022 – Magdeburg 0 – 4 Eintracht Frankfurt
Friendly club matches
27/07/2022 – FCA Walldorf 0 – 5 Eintracht Frankfurt
15/07/2022 – FC Torino 1 – 3 Eintracht Frankfurt
09/07/2022 – LASK 0 – 0 Eintracht Frankfurt
05/07/2022 – Viktoria Aschaffenburg 0 – 1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Bayern – Statistics & current form
FC Bayern have now won ten championships in a row. For the 2022/23 season, Bayern are once again the hottest contenders for the Bundesliga title. However, the record champions will have to tackle this mission without their best goalscorer of recent years, Robert Lewandowski. After a long back and forth, the Pole finally moved to FC Barcelona and left a gap in the FCB’s front line that needs to be filled.
Since the transfer was finalised, there have been discussions about whether the “Bestia Negra” has lost quality without the multiple top scorer or whether the new, more flexible offensive line is even better suited to Julian Nagelsmann’s style of play. As is so often the case, the truth probably lies somewhere in between, although the record champions gave a first taste of the direction things could be heading in last Saturday’s German Super Cup final against RB Leipzig.
Will Bayern’s defence remain vulnerable?
After a superb first half in which Thomas Müller and Co. were already 3-0 up, the second half also showed that the defensive deficits of the previous season have not been completely eliminated. Because Leipzig scored three more goals and FCB two, the final score at the end of 90 exciting minutes was 5:3 for the team of coach Julian Nagelsmann, who thus won the first national title of the still young season.
Partly for this reason, but also because in 2021/22 a total of 22 of Bayern’s 34 games saw more than three goals, it is perhaps advisable to take a look at the odds on over-goal bets on Friday night between Frankfurt and Bayern. The combination of an away win for the champions, including goals on both sides, is also proving interesting.
All eyes on Mané
Finally, of course, there remains a special look at the Bundesliga debut of new superstar Sadio Mané, who has scored at least one goal in five of his last six seasons for Liverpool in their first away game. The Senegalese also scored on his debut for the Reds in August 2016.
Incidentally, the last Bayern player to score in his first match in Germany’s top flight was Joshua Zirkzee in 2019. If you want to make a prediction on a goal from Mané in the clash between Frankfurt and Bayern,
In all likelihood, Mané will even remain the only newcomer in the starting eleven. De Ligt, Mazraoui, Gravenberch and also the young Tel, whose eligibility to play has arrived in the meantime, will probably have to sit on the bench at the start. Kingsley Coman, who is still suspended from pre-season, and the injured Choupo-Moting and Goretzka will not be involved at all.
Predicted Bayern line-up:
Neuer – Pavard, Upamecano, Hernandez, Davies – Sabitzer, Kimmich – T. Müller, Musiala – Gnabry, Mané
Last matches played by Bayern:
Super Cup
31/07/2022 – RB Leipzig 3 – 5 Bayern Munich
Friendly club matches
24/07/2022 – Bayern Munich 0 – 1 Manchester City
21/07/2022 – DC United 2 – 6 Bayern Munich
Bundesliga
14/05/2022 – VfL Wolfsburg 2 – 2 Bayern Munich
08/05/2022 – Bayern Munich 2 – 2 VfB Stuttgart
Frankfurt – Bayern Direct comparison / H2H balance
As already mentioned, FC Bayern have not lost more guest games at any other Bundesliga team than at Eintracht Frankfurt. At the same time, however, no other club has seen more home defeats for the SGE than Munich.
After 16 winless encounters from the Hessians’ point of view, the development over the last three seasons is positive. Three victories were offset by three defeats, and the games were usually close. In 2021/22, the Eagles won 2-1 at the Allianz Arena, but lost 0-1 at home. Before that, on the other hand, betting on the over 3.5 would have been crowned with success in five of the previous seven direct duels.
Frankfurt – Bayern Tip
Before the opening game of a new Bundesliga season, there are many unanswered questions to be answered. How will FC Bayern cope without Robert Lewandowski? How does Frankfurt’s Eintracht deal with the soon-to-be triple burden of Bundesliga, Cup and CL? Can the Europa League winners even end a 20-year streak on Friday night in which the reigning champions did not lose their respective opening game?
If we take a look at the bookmakers’ betting odds ahead of the eagerly awaited match between Frankfurt and Bayern, it becomes clear that many things point to an away win for the Munich team. Although the record champions have lost three of their last six direct encounters against the Hessians, there are enough arguments to swing the pendulum in the direction of Nagelsmann’s team. Be it the individual quality, the very good impression from the Super Cup final or Eintracht’s abysmal home record from the pre-season.
But because, as we all know, a lot can happen in the first game of the season, and because we would never make the mistake of underestimating the hosts in front of their home crowd, we have decided to bet on more than three goals in the course of the game between Frankfurt and Bayern.
Both teams have very well-functioning offensives, 22 of FCB’s 34 Bundesliga matches from last season ended with the over 3.5 and also the fact that in the last seven opening matches a whopping 33 goals were scored and in six of those seven matches the targeted mark was broken can be seen as an argument for our recommendation.
