After sealing their progression to the Europa League final on Thursday evening, Eintracht Frankfurt prepare to return to Bundesliga action against Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday afternoon.
The hosts ran out 1-0 winners on the night against West Ham United in midweek to seal a 3-1 victory on aggregate, whilst the visitors continued their improved finish to a disappointing league campaign after winning themselves last time out.
Match preview
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Frankfurt kept their cool to edge out the Hammers in a fiery semi-final second leg at the Deutsche Bank Park on Thursday, in which Rafael Santos Borre scored the only goal of the game midway through the second half.
Aaron Cresswell's sending off seven minutes earlier certainly helped Die Adler's cause and made proceedings a little more comfortable, but they got the job done nevertheless to set up an intriguing final with Rangers on May 18.
Lifting the trophy later this month remains Frankfurt's only hope of competing in continental football again next season, with a poor finish to their Bundesliga campaign leaving Oliver Glasner's side down in 11th place ahead of matchday 33.
Sunday's hosts are winless in their last six league outings, in a complete contrast to their impressive displays in Europe, with a two-legged triumph over Barcelona also preceding the victory over West Ham.
Although focus may be elsewhere at the weekend, Glasner and Frankfurt will be looking to take some momentum into the final against the Scottish champions, so an improved domestic performance and result will certainly be required in their penultimate Bundesliga game of the season.
In order to do so though, the hosts must find a solution to their troubles in front of their own supporters of late, with Thursday's 1-0 triumph at the Deutsche Bank Park being an exception to Frankfurt's lowly tally of just five points from eight home games in the league this calendar year.
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Meanwhile, Adi Hutter returns to his former employers one matchday after leapfrogging them in the table, following Monday's impressive 3-1 success over RB Leipzig.
A hugely disappointing campaign has improved dramatically in recent weeks, with the victory over Die Roten Bullen at Borussia-Park being Gladbach's fourth in their last seven outings, and of which just one has ended in defeat.
Jonas Hofmann netted a brace on Monday, which added to Breel Embolo's early goal following a dominant first half, and although Nico Elvedi was shown a straight red card just after the hour mark, Die Fohlen remained resilient to frustrate their top-four-hopeful opponents.
That kind of quality and character is what the Gladbach supporters have been looking for all season, but unfortunately it has been severely lacking until recently.
However, should Sunday's visitors manage to triumph once more on the penultimate weekend, as well as against Hoffenheim on the final day, they could yet climb as high as eighth in the table.
A positive end to the campaign would be ideal for Hutter, who has survived a decent amount of pressure throughout a disappointing year, and it would set up the club nicely ahead of a summer rebuild for a desired significant improvement in the 2022-23 season.
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Team News
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As he did in their last league outing on Monday, Glasner is likely to rest some of his first-team players at the weekend, with a view to their Europa League final in under two weeks time.
Borre missed the defeat at Bayer Leverkusen through suspension, before returning on Thursday evening, and the Colombian is expected to keep his place in attack ahead of Goncalo Paciencia.
The likes of Filip Kostic and Daichi Kamada will be in line for rests should Glasner opt to rotate, although the boss will be forced into one change for definite, with Martin Hinteregger being taken off just eight minutes in to Thursday's tie due to a hamstring injury.
Diant Ramaj and Jesper Lindstrom will remain sidelined, and they could be joined by Erik Durm, who missed out in midweek due to illness.
As for the visitors, they will be without the suspended duo of Elvedi and Kouadio Kone, with the former serving a two-match ban for his red card last time out and the latter missing out for one game after picking up his 10th yellow card of the campaign against Leipzig.
The pair are joined on the sidelines by the injured duo of Marcus Thuram and Laszlo Benes too, but Hutter has no fresh injury concerns to worry about.
Marvin Friedrich is likely to deputise for Elvedi in the three-man back line, with Matthias Ginter expected to miss out again ahead of his exit on a free transfer in the summer.
Meanwhile, Christoph Kramer should come in for the youngster Kone, to combine with the creative Florian Neuhaus in the centre of midfield.
Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Tuta, Hasebe, Ndicka; Toure, Sow, Jakic, Kostic; Hauge, Lammers; Borre
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Beyer, Friedrich, Bensebaini; Lainer, Kramer, Neuhaus, Netz; Hofmann, Stindl; Embolo
We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 1-2 Borussia Monchengladbach
With the hosts having one eye on their upcoming Europa League final, and with nothing left to play for in the Bundesliga, we can see the visitors coming out with a narrow victory here.
They too have nothing left to play for in the remaining two games, but their decent finish to the campaign, combined with Frankfurt's awful league form, means they will come into the contest with plenty of confidence.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats, suggests the most likely outcome of this match is a Eintracht Frankfurt win with a probability of 45.6%. A win for Borussia Monchengladbach has a probability of 30.33% and a draw has a probability of 24.1%.
The most likely scoreline is Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Borussia Monchengladbach with a probability of 11.18% and the second most likely scoreline is Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 Borussia Monchengladbach with a probability of 9.26%.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
