Borussia Dortmund will be aiming to leapfrog Eintracht Frankfurt into the top four of the Bundesliga by beating them on Saturday evening.
Frankfurt should be full of confidence, though, having won four consecutive games in all competitions.
Indeed, after making a patchy start to the season, Oliver Glasner’s side have significantly strengthened their chances of progressing to the Champions League knockout stages, winning in the DFB-Pokal and securing a top-four position in recent weeks.
Their 2-1 victory against Marseille on Wednesday, courtesy of strikes from Daichi Kamada and Kolo Randal Muani in the first half, moved them level on points with second-placed Sporting ahead of travelling to Lisbon next week for a showdown to earn a place in the knockout rounds of Europe’s elite competition.
Domestically, meanwhile, Die Adler are through to the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal after beating Stuttgarter Kickers 2-0 last week – with a favourable draw at home against Darmstadt awaiting them in the New Year – while they recorded an impressive 3-1 win away to Borussia Monchengladbach last weekend.
That was Frankfurt’s fourth win in their last five league games – with a defeat to relegation-threatened VfL Bochum their only blemish of late – and saw them move into the Champions League qualification positions, but they must avoid defeat against Dortmund on Saturday in order to remain there.
Dortmund, meanwhile, returned to winning ways with a thumping 5-0 win against struggling Stuttgart at the Westfalenstadion last weekend.
England midfielder Jude Bellingham bagged a brace to continue his terrific individual campaign, with BVB impressively restricting their opponents to only one shot on target across the course of the match.
Edin Terzic’s side secured their progression to the Champions League knockout stages with a 0-0 draw against Manchester City on Tuesday, too, as they managed to deny Pep Guardiola’s side turning 73% possession into many clear cut chances despite Riyad Mahrez seeing his penalty excellently saved by Gregor Kobel in the second half.
With only four league games between travelling to Frankfurt and next month’s World Cup in Qatar beginning, Dortmund will be determined to ensure that they head into the break in the Champions League qualification positions, while ideally keeping any points deficit to Bayern Munich to a minimum.
Eintracht Frankfurt Bundesliga form:
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Eintracht Frankfurt form (all competitions):
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Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga form:
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Borussia Dortmund form (all competitions):
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We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Borussia Dortmund
The Bundesliga’s Saturday night game should be a highly absorbing affair this weekend, with both teams playing an attractive style of football in recent weeks.
In truth, with Frankfurt benefitting from home advantage, it is difficult to split them from Dortmund, so we can envisage a score draw at Deutsch Bank Park.