Dortmund vs. Frankfurt preview: BVB look to rebound from that disaster
The black and yellow are back in action against a struggling Frankfurt team, as they look to put their head-scratching draw to Stuttgart in the rearview mirror.
Dortmund
Despite last weekend’s chaos, BVB remain two points behind Bayern in the tightly-contested title race. At this point, they pretty much must expect to win every remaining match in order to claim that much-needed Meisterschale.
With several key injuries in defense, there’s a good chance Emre Can is again forced to take over center-defensive duties. On the offensive end, in-form Donyell Malen could start opposite speedster Karim Adeyemi to challenge a very thin Eintracht defense.
In his press conference, Edin Terzic said, "There are still six games left. We want to grab this opportunity with everything we have to make it happen. - If we want to be successful, we all have to be willing to go the extra mile.”
Team News
Julien Duranville, Mateu Morey and Thomas Meunier are out, while Terzic mentioned that Nico Schlotterbeck, Niklas Süle and Anthony Modeste are questionable. Defender Felix Passlack’s free summer transfer to Bochum was made official this week.
Frankfurt
Oliver Glasner hasn’t been afraid to display his frustrations with a team that are rapidly falling out of the European conversation. They’ve failed to claim three points in any of their last seven league matches and injuries are starting to pile up.
Despite praising American Paxten Aaronson this week, Glasner also stated that the outgoing Daichi Kamada, “lacks the natural finishing flair that he had in the autumn.”
Whether it be through league play or the DFB-Pokal, Frankfurt need European football if they want to have any chance of holding onto their manager and some of their stars.
Glasner also commented, ”This team has shown in the past that they can stand up and be counted even when people are least expecting it. We’re capable of getting a win in Dortmund.”
Team News
Almamy Toure is questionable, while Evan Ndicka, Jesper Lindstrøm, Philipp Max, Hrvoje Smolcic and Kristijan Jakic are out. Mario Götze is back from suspension and Glasner confirmed that Christopher Lenz will start on the left side on Saturday.
In other news this week, Frankfurt reportedly made an offer of €15 million for Stuttgart defender Konstantinos Mavropanos.