Eintracht Frankfurt will be aiming to bounce back from defeat when they host Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday evening.
The visitors, meanwhile, recorded a 2-2 draw against Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga's Friday night game last time out.
Match preview
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Frankfurt, on the other hand, were duly dispatched 3-0 by the league leaders Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday. Victor Boniface opened the scoring after just 14 minutes, with quickfire goals from Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz before the hour mark sealing all three points for their side.
With Die Adler thrashing Bayern Munich 5-1 in their previous game and Leverkusen drawing successive matches, there was some hope of recording an upset at BayArena. However, Frankfurt generated just four shots across the course of the encounter, with Xabi Alonso's side putting in a dominant display once again.
The defeat marked Dino Toppmoller's side's fourth successive loss on the road in all competitions. They have also lost three of their last four league games, and six of their last seven in all competitions, making that shockingly heavy win against Bayer appear to be an outlier.
That said, with tenth-placed Augsburg three points behind them while possessing a significantly inferior goal difference, Frankfurt's place in the top half should be secure during the winter break regardless of their result against Gladbach. However, Toppmoller and his players will certainly want to enjoy the upcoming break having ended the calendar year on a high.
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With Augsburg and ninth-placed Wolfsburg facing Bayern and Stuttgart respectively (and simultaneously), Gladbach will sense an opportunity to join their forthcoming opponents in the top half of the table by beating them on Wednesday.
However, former Leverkusen boss Gerardo Seoane will recognise the difficulty of pulling that off given that Gladbach have won just one of their last 15 away games in the Bundesliga dating back to early February. Of course, more than half of those matches were led by his predecessor Daniel Farke, but Die Fohlen have remained incredibly leaky on the road.
In truth, Gladbach are defensively vulnerable at any stadium, as their 2-2 draw against Werder Bremen demonstrated. Rocco Reitz's quickfire brace turned the match on its head after Rafael Santos Borre had provided the visitors with a half-time lead, but his strike partner Marvin Ducksch snatched a point with 14 minutes of normal time remaining.
Only rock-bottom side SV Darmstadt 98 have conceded more goals than Gladbach's tally of 33 against from 15 matches. On the flipside, only the top four teams in the division have scored more goals than their tally of 30. They are fun to watch, if not totally efficient just yet, and will fancy their chances of ending the year on a high at Deutsche Bank Park.
Team News
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Frankfurt will remain without Kristijan Jakic, Timothy Chandler, Sebastian Rode and Mehdi Loune due to injury. Toppmoller will hope to have the quartet available in the New Year, but Robin Koch may be out of action until February after suffering a serious knee injury against Leverkusen.
Omar Marmoush's absence due to illness was a major blow for Frankfurt, who will hope to have their top goalscorer available once again on Wednesday. Failing that, Jessic Ngankam could be asked to lead the line after only being used from the bench last time out.
Gladbach, meanwhile, will travel without Jordan Siebatcheu, Tony Jantschke, Lukas Ullrich, Ko Itakura, Hannes Wolf, Jonas Omlin and Stefan Lainer. Like his forthcoming counterpart, Seoane may consider the winter break to have arrived at an opportune moment considering his club's amount of absentees.
Tomas Cvancara missed out against Werder Bremen due to a cold, but he should be fit enough to return alongside Alassane Plea in attack. Experienced midfielders Florian Neuhaus and Christoph Kramer will both be hoping for recalls after only being named on the bench for their side's 2-2 draw.
Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Tuta, Smolcic, Pacho; Buta, Skhiri, Larsson, Max; Ebimbe, Marmoush, Knauff
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Nicolas; Scally, Elvedi, Wober; Honorat, Reitz, Weigl, Kone, Netz; Plea, Cvancara
We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Borussia Monchengladbach
Goals are almost guaranteed in Gladbach's matches, and this meeting with Frankfurt should be no different. They have conceded three or more goals in six of their seven away games this season.
Toppmoller's side have been scoring and conceding more regularly of late themselves, but they do not head into this encounter in great form. As such, we can envisage both sides settling for sharing the spoils from an entertaining match.
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Top tip
Brett Curtis
