Frankfurt vs. Köln preview: Skhiri plays his former club
Tired and Randal Kolo Muani-less Frankfurt host Köln, who will play against Ellyes Skhiri for the first time since his summer move.
Frankfurt
It’s been a hectic few days (and weeks) for Eintracht, who just advanced to the Europa Conference League group stage and were busy on the transfer market’s final day. They signed youngsters Niels Nkounkou and Sidney Raebiger this week, while Rafael Borre was sent to Bremen on loan.
But, the big news was of course Randal Kolo Muani, who finalized a €95 million move to PSG just before the end of the deadline. Frankfurt were not able to sign a replacement, but Omar Marmoush and Jessic Ngankam should share duties in the no. 9 role moving forward.
It should be noted that this will be Frankfurt’s 5th game in the last 15 days.
After booking their place in the Conference League, Dino Toppmöller said, "I'm incredibly proud of the squad because the last few days haven't been easy. - We knew what this international competition meant for the club."
Team News
Kristijan Jakic is out with a concussion, while Sebastian Rode and Lucas Alario will likely remain out. Ansgar Knauff can’t play as he serves a suspension.
Köln
It hasn’t been a great start to the league campaign for the Billy Goats who’ve lost each of their first two games. Despite a goal from newcomer Luca Waldschmidt last week, there wasn’t a lot of encouraging signs in their loss to Wolfsburg.
They are still hoping to have several key players back from the injury list in the near future including Davie Selke, who is sidelined after trying to play through a thigh strain. It was a quiet end to the window for Köln, who only brought in defender Dominique Heintz from Union Berlin.
When asked about Ellyes Skhiri, Steffen Baumgart said, “I'm pleased that Ellyes has started well in Frankfurt. We'd obviously rather he was scoring those goals for us. But it will be an emotional game, I've worked well with a lot of people in Frankfurt.”
Team News
Selke, Florian Dietz, Jan Thielmann, and Mark Uth are out. Steffen Tigges could start in place of Selke up front, while new signing Heintz won’t be in the squad.