Köln vs. Eintracht Frankfurt preview: Can Köln win their first game of 2024?
Köln host Eintracht Frankfurt at the RheinEnergieStadion on Saturday evening, hoping to close the five-point gap between them and Union Berlin. Eintracht Frankfurt, however, look to enter the Champions League race.
Köln
Under new manager Timo Schultz, 1. FC Köln are yet to win a game. Having lost one and drawing two, Schultz has an opportunity to get the home crowd behind him with victory.
With Noah Katterbach and Dimitrios Limnios having left the club permanently during the winter transfer window, there is some hope that Timo Schultz now has a smaller, more competitive squad.
Injuries have meant that youngster Jan Thielmann has started up front in the last two games for the Billy Goats.
A glimmer of hope for Köln comes in the form of loanee Faride Alidou (who joined the club last summer on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt) as he managed to score his first Köln goal last weekend.
Despite this, Köln have struggled the entire season to score goals and have only scored twelve this season (with five coming from the injured Davie Selke).
On this matter, ahead of the Eintracht Frankfurt match, Köln coach Timo Schultz said: "We know that we will not have chances coming on the assembly line against a team like Frankfurt."
Team News
For Köln, both Davie Selke and Luca Waldschmidt are out for several weeks with a foot injury and a broken leg respectively. Mark Uth is also injured with a knee problem. Youngster Justin Diehl will almost certainly miss out on the action on the weekend due to illness.
Eintracht Frankfurt
For Eintracht Frankfurt, three wins in four games mean that they are only five points off Borussia Dortmund in fourth place.
Signings Sasa Kalajdžić and Donny Van De Beek on loan deals seem to bring a new-found hope to the squad with both having made appearances in all three games this calendar year.
Despite this, Eintracht are without Oscar Marmoush who is their top goalscorer this season with seven goals due to injury.
For Eintracht Frankfurt this season, defence has been the key as they have conceded only twenty-two goals this season.
With this in mind, only Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen have conceded fewer goals in the Bundesliga this campaign.
Ahead of the match against Köln, Eintracht Frankfurt manager Dino Toppmöller gave a statement of new signing Hugo Ekitiké's possible involvement on Saturday.
On this matter, Toppmöller said: "We are pleased that Ekitiké joined us yesterday. We’ll have to see how he does on the training pitch and who makes the squad for tomorrow.
Team News
William Pacho is suspended for Eintracht Frankfurt following a yellow card suspension he received in the match against Mainz last weekend. Alongside this, Omar Marmoush will miss the game with illness.