Eintracht Frankfurt vs Borussia Monchengladbach
Commerzbank Arena, Frankfurt am Main
Saturday, 16-05-2020 @7:30pm
Ref: Christain Dingert
Borussia Monchengladbach will resume their Bundesliga campaign with a trip to the Commerzbank-Arena, against hosts Eintracht Frankfurt.
Eintracht were going through a poor run of form prior to football getting suspended. Adi Hutter’s side lost their previous three matches against Dortmund, Union Berlin and Bayer Leverkusen. They conceded ten goals in the three matches, while scoring just one.
Currently 12th in the table, they could still get dragged into the fight for the relegation playoff spot, given that they are just six points better off than 16th-placed Fortuna Dusseldorf. And the Eagles would be keen on avoiding such a scenario by kicking things off with a win this Saturday.
Gladbach, on the other hand, are sitting fourth in the Bundesliga table, just six points shy of leaders Bayern Munich. Having managed to top the table for a number of weeks earlier this season , Marco Rose’s men are pretty much the dark horses in the race for the title and will want to pile on the pressure on their rivals with a victory this weekend.
Before suspension, Die Fohlen had lost just one of their last seven league fixtures (W4, D3), with their latest fixture ending in a 2-1 win against FC Koln. Having beaten Eintracht 4-2 in the reverse fixture, they will be confident of getting all three points from an empty Commerzbank-Arena on Saturday evening.
Frankfurt are expected to be without Marco Russ as he continues to recover from an Achilles injury, but the suspension of play has given all other injury doubts the chance to recover. Goals have been the biggest issue for Saturday’s hosts following last summer’s departures of Luka Jovic and Sebastien Haller, but their league top-scorer Goncalo Paciencia should start again while Martin Hinteregger has weighed in with six from centre-back this term.
Monchengladbach will have to cope without star man Denis Zakaria for the time being, with the defensive midfielder having undergone knee surgery which is expected to keep him out for up to six weeks. The visitors should otherwise be at full strength, though, which means that Manchester United-linked striker Alassane Plea will lead the line once more.
Gladbach won the first meeting between the two sides this season 4-2. Frankfurt are winless in their last three fixtures against Gladbach (D1 L2).
The other Bundesliga games this weekend
Saturday, 16-05-2020
-Dortmund vs Schalke O4 @4:30pm
-Hoffenheim vs Hertha Berlin @4:30pm
-Dusseldorf vs Paderbon @4:30pm
-Augsburg vs Wolfsburg @4:30pm
-RB Leipzig vs Freiburg @4:30pm
Sunday, 17-05-2020
-Koln vs Mainz @4:30pm
-Union Berlin vs Bayern @7pm
Monday, 18-05-2020
-Werder Bremen vs Bayer Leverkusen @9:30pm
