Fight for Sixth Position - Eintracht faces two concerns prior to their match against Leipzig.
Did Eintracht board member Markus Krösche (43) anticipate a week ago after the 1:1 draw in Gladbach that the race for sixth place would be so intense?
He surely wouldn't have wanted to be praised for reaching the Europa League. And rightly so! Almost catching up with Hoffenheim made up for their inferior goal difference (-3) with a 6-0 victory over Darmstadt and reduced the gap to three points.
Eintracht must secure at least a point against Leipzig on Saturday at 3:30 PM - or hope that Bayern takes something from Hoffenheim. However, the defeated record champions have eleven missing players before the last match and are in a weakened state!
The initial scenario: If Eintracht loses 0:1, Hoffenheim could out ranks them with a 2:0 victory. If Hoffenheim only wins 1:0, Frankfurt could at most lose 0:1 - and would still be sixth based on goal difference. In the event of Dortmund winning the Champions League against Real Madrid on June 1, Frankfurt would even make it to the top flight.
"We're only concerned with ourselves," expressed Frankfurt coach Dino Toppmöller (43), "we have the power to take the final step."
Eintracht Frankfurt is hard to defeat in their home ground (only twice, both Leverkusen and Stuttgart have stronger records). But in the past seven games, Frankfurt has failed to score the crucial goal to take a 1-0 lead.
Contrarily, Toppmöller's team has already conceded ten goals in the opening ten minutes this season! A terrifying statistic.
"Yes, that's not great. But sometimes it's difficult to understand," shared the coach, "We had the first chance to lead 1-0 again in Gladbach. But then the opponent has always scored with the very first attempt lately. We must attempt to approach the game with the proper focus!"
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Source: symclub.org
