Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Hoffenheim preview: Visitors targeting back-to-back victories
Eintracht Frankfurt
Dino Toppmöller kicked off his second season as Frankfurt boss with a commanding 4-1 win over Eintracht Braunschweig in the DFB-Pokal. However, die Adler were unable to take anything from their Bundesliga opener against Borussia Dortmund at Signal-Iduna Park. The contest was goalless for just over 70 minutes before Jamie Bynoe-Gittens netted a late brace to condemn Frankfurt to a 2-0 defeat.
As a result, die Adler have now gone five Bundesliga matches since beating Augsburg on April 19. After losing on their travels last weekend, Frankfurt will now return to the home comforts of Deutsche Bank Park where they proved to be a tough team to beat last season. In fact, they lost just two of their 17 home league matches last term, although they would have been frustrated to draw eight of those contests.
Frankfurt did manage to complete a league double over Hoffenheim last season, recording 3-1 victories in both home and away encounters.
Team News
The hosts are unable to call upon the injured duo of Oscar Hojlund and Mehdi Loune.
Hoffenheim
Last season, Hoffenheim collected 46 points from 34 matches to finish in seventh position and just one point adrift of sixth-placed Frankfurt. As a result of their league finish, Hoffenheim will represent Germany alongside Frankfurt in the Europa League main draw.
In regards to domestic matters, Die Kraichgauer have made an unbeaten start to the new season despite being taken to extra time and penalties in their Pokal clash with Würzburger Kickers. Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side ultimately held their from the spot to win 5-3 in the shootout and seal their place in the second round.
Hoffenheim followed their successful cup outing with a narrow 3-2 victory in their league opener against newly-promoted Holstein Kiel. Andrej Kramarić netted a hat-trick to fire Hoffenheim to their third consecutive Bundesliga win after beating Darmstadt and Bayern Munich in their final two matches of last season.
They will be targeting three more points this weekend as they look to claim their first away victory over Frankfurt since winning 2-0 in April 2016.
Team News
The visitors are without the services of Ozan Kabak, Umut Tohumcu, Finn Ole Becker, Ihlas Bebou, Tom Bischof and David Jurasek.