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Having both exited Europe just before the international break, Eintracht Frankfurt and Union Berlin aim to keep dreams of silverware alive on Tuesday, when they clash in the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals. Union emerged 2-0 winners when the sides met last month and sit 10 points clear of their hosts in the Bundesliga standings, but have never before claimed the German cup. Two more points were dropped by Oliver Glasner’s men on Friday, as a 1-1 draw with Bochum – which saw top scorer Randal Kolo Muani find the target again – made it five league games without a win.
They therefore return to action at Deutsche Bank Park with a previously promising campaign threatening to peter out, so finding a way past in-form Union would both boost confidence in the camp and keep dreams of more silverware alive for last year’s Europa League winners. Despite Kolo Muani being sent off when the teams last met in Frankfurt, back in October, the hosts secured a 2-0 victory over their capital-city counterparts on that occasion, but the dynamic between the pair has certainly changed since then.
Their star man struck twice in the previous round of the DFB-Pokal, when Eintracht dumped Darmstadt out by winning 4-2 in their last-16 tie, and Glasner will now turn to the France international for inspiration once again. Sheraldo Becker’s second-half goal on Saturday ended an 11-game drought for the Suriname striker and set Die Eisernen towards a 3-0 victory over struggling Stuttgart; consolidating third place in the standings.
With 51 points after 26 matches, Union are enjoying their best-ever Bundesliga season so far, and they are now only two points adrift of Borussia Dortmund, who imploded in Saturday’s top-of-the-table Klassiker contest against Bayern Munich.
As a result of their latest success at Alte Forsterei, Urs Fischer’s side are the only team other than Bayern still unbeaten at home in the league, but they have been less impressive on the road and were beaten 3-0 away to Belgium’s Union Saint-Gilloise in their recent Europa League tie.
Nonetheless, Berlin’s rising stars knocked out Wolfsburg to reach the DFB-Pokal’s last eight and will be intent on breaking more new ground by going all the way in this season’s competition. Despite once lifting the East German Cup in the 1960s, the closest they have come to claiming cup glory since reunification came back in 2001, when they lost the final to Schalke as a third-tier team – it has been a long road to prominence since then.
