Eintracht Frankfurt were beaten 2-1 by Augsburg to conclude the Bundesliga’s 13th round, a result which saw them slip to their second straight league defeat in freezing Bavarian conditions. Although it’s now more than one month since the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League winners tasted a Bundesliga victory (D1, L2), Dino Toppmöller’s side remain inside the top half heading towards the winter break.
After also losing 2-1 to Stuttgart to end a 15-match unbeaten streak in home league matches (W8, D7) late last month, Frankfurt now risk recording successive home Bundesliga defeats for the first time since they lost four in a row in January/February 2022, a sequence that concluded with a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich. The risk is certainly credible given they’ve lost five of the last seven home H2Hs (W2) including a 6-1 hammering here last term, whilst their last two Bundesliga strikes anywhere were own goals.
The visitors were afforded a break last week after their match against Union Berlin was postponed due to bad weather and they ended the round one point further behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen than they were at the start of it. Thomas Tuchel’s side probably didn’t want to lose momentum after six straight league wins, but victory here will eliminate that three-point gap for at least 24 hours.
There was also no midweek action for the reigning champions following their unexpected early DFB-Pokal exit to Saarbrücken – who then coincidentally met Frankfurt in the next round! Given Bayern haven’t lost any of their last eight league away fixtures (W7, D1), only conceding once across their last three (W3), they’ll expect there’ll be no such embarrassment here as they chase three successive H2H wins at the Deutsche Bank Park.
Players to watch: Omar Marmoush has scored 32% (six) of Frankfurt’s Bundesliga goals this term, four of them inside the opening 15 minutes. A similar fan of a fast start, Harry Kane has netted in each of Bayern’s last four league away games, three times within the first 20 minutes.
Hot stat: Bayern are the only team yet to be drawing at half-time away from home in the Bundesliga this term (HT: W4, L2).
