Eintracht Frankfurt and Augsburg meet on the second weekend of the Bundesliga on Saturday hoping to bounce back from their opening-match thrashings.
Both were deservedly well-beaten in their respective fixtures and will be looking to pick up their first points of the new season when they meet at the Commerzbank Arena.
Match preview
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Frankfurt began their season with a tough trip away to Borussia Dortmund last Saturday evening, and although they would not have been expected to pick up a result, the visitors would have certainly preferred to put up a greater fight and a better performance.
Despite looking a threat going forward, creating plenty of chances themselves and managing to score two away at Signal Iduna Park, they were deservedly thrashed 5-2 in the end thanks to a devastating Dortmund front line and some poor defending.
However, after finishing fifth in the Bundesliga last season and only just missing out on the Champions League qualification spots as a result, new manager Oliver Glasner would have expected more from his side despite the calibre of the opposition.
Glasner has arrived from Wolfsburg, the side that just pipped Frankfurt to fourth spot last campaign. Therefore, there are reasons to be positive ahead of the remainder of the season, as they look to build on their impressive position and look forward to a Europa League journey as well.
However, the new manager does have to deal with the loss of last season's top goalscorer Andre Silva, who scored an incredible 28 goals in 32 Bundesliga games. One of the players brought in to help fill the void is Norwegian youngster Jens Petter Hauge, who has joined on a loan deal with an obligation to buy from AC Milan, and he scored off the bench on his debut last week on a positive note.
After a difficult start last weekend, which followed a disappointing 2-0 defeat to third-tier side Waldhof Mannheim in the DFB-Pokal, Frankfurt will be hoping to pick up their home form from where it left off last season. The hosts managed to remain unbeaten at the Commerzbank Arena all season in the Bundesliga and have also beaten Saturday's opponents Augsburg in each of their past three meetings.
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Augsburg come into Saturday's match off the back of a heavy defeat themselves; the visitors began their new Bundesliga campaign with a demoralising 4-0 defeat at home to Hoffenheim, a side they finished only two places below last season.
It was an all-round disappointing performance with very little positives to take from it, with the scoreline certainly being a true reflection of how the game played out.
Prior to the opening-weekend disappointment, Augsburg had a mixed pre-season schedule followed by a 4-2 win in the first round of the DFB-Pokal over amateur side Greifswalder.
The aims for the season will always be survival for a club of Augsburg's size and stature, and after finishing 13th and three points above the relegation playoff spot, they will be hoping to get their season up and running against a side that they have lost to on all of their past three encounters.
Markus Weinzierl, who returned to the club back in April to oversee the last three matches of their survival bid, will be looking to put an end to that losing streak in his second Bundesliga match back in charge.
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Team News
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Rafael Santos Borre is the new main man tasked with filling the void left by the departed Andre Silva; he led the line in his debut match against Dortmund last week and despite disappointing, will expect to start again.
Fellow new signings Jesper Lindstrom and Hauge made their debuts after coming off the bench at half-time and at least one is expected to come into the forward line for their first start.
However, the hosts will be without midfielders Sebastian Rode and Almamy Toure, who have been ruled out with knee and thigh injuries respectively.
Meanwhile, Augsburg's injury list is more concerning, with at least five players expected to be ruled out with various injuries.
Defenders Reece Oxford (knee) and Tobias Strobl (ankle) are unavailable, whilst fellow defender and captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw is a major doubt after missing training so far this week.
Youngster Tim Civeja (pelvis) and forwards Sergio Cordova and Alfred Finnbogason are also missing for the visitors, in what is a long injury list that includes some important players.
Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Hinteregger, Hasebe, N'Dicka; Durm, Sow, Hrustic, Kostic; Kamada, Lindstrom; Borre
Augsburg possible starting lineup:
Gikiewicz; Gumny, Winther, Uduokhai, Iago; Maier, Dorsch; Caligiuri, Hahn, Vargas; Niederlechner
We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 Augsburg
We are expecting Frankfurt to get their first win under new manager Glasner in a comfortable fashion here. Their exceptional home form of last season will certainly play a part and after displaying their attacking quality in the opening-day hammering, they should once again score a few goals against an Augsburg side thrashed themselves in their campaign opener.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Eintracht Frankfurt win with a probability of 58.87%. A win for Augsburg had a probability of 20.79% and a draw had a probability of 20.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Eintracht Frankfurt win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.7%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (7.97%) and 1-0 (7.39%). The likeliest Augsburg win was 1-2 (5.46%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (8.98%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 3.4% likelihood.
