Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Bayer Leverkusen: How do they stack up?
It’s third place hosting second in the Bundesliga this weekend in a fixture that has historically guaranteed goals, and with Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen each determined to keep their respective 2024/25 aspirations in sight, a Matchday 24 meeting at Deutsche Bank Park is ready to deliver all across the pitch.
bundesliga.com highlights some of the battles and crunches the numbers ahead of what looks set to be an unmissable game.
Home titans vs. away-day record breakers
Frankfurt’s form down by the Main has been one of the factors involved in the Eagles’ flight to third spot this term. Only two other teams (Leverkusen and RB Leipzig) have suffered just one reverse on their own patch to challenge the home masters Bayern Munich, who have yet to lose in the Bundesliga at the Allianz Arena this season.
Eintracht’s record in their 11 home games so far reads seven wins and three draws, with a Matchday 15 loss to Mainz the only blemish in that run for Dino Topmöller’s men. Along with Bayer 04, Die Adler are the second-highest scorers on home soil and Saturday’s hosts have even scored in all 11 of those games in front of their home fans this term.
Watch: Eintracht's last home encounter in the Bundesliga brought a 3-1 win against Kiel
Yet Leverkusen arrive in Mainhatten on a special run of their own on the road, and one that will raise caution among the hosts this weekend. On Matchday 23, the Werkself enjoyed a 2-0 victory at Holstein Kiel, a result that saw coach Xabi Alonso overtake legendary Bundesliga tactician Udo Lattek – formerly of Bayern and Borussia Mönchengladbach, among others – with 28 unbeaten Bundesliga away games in a row!
The battle out wide
The Eagles host some of the Bundesliga’s finest fledgling talent and Saturday’s battle out wide will test the home side’s pair of impressive 21-year-olds. Nathaniel Brown and Nnamdi Collins are not just teammates at Eintracht, they are now playing together for the Germany U21s too. Düsseldorf native Collins is thriving at his current club to such an extent that the versatile defender and former Fortuna and Borussia Dortmund youth penned a contracht extension at the end of last year.
With a top speed of 22.22 mp/h, Collins is behind only Ansgar Knauff as Frankfurt’s fastest player while with a couple of goal involvements from central and wide areas (he has been largely used on the right by Topmöller this term), the 6’2” player is a formidable presence in Eintracht’s line-up.
Watch: Nathaniel Brown - November's Rookie of the Month
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Indeed, the same can be said of left-sided wizard Brown, who to date has produced an incredible seven goal involevents (three goals, four assists) to go with his 287 sprints and 25 crosses in 15 appearances.
Saturday represents a huge test for both Brown and Collins with the evergreen Álex Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong in town. Leverkusen’s flank firebrands may not quite be producing the same stratospheric digits they managed during last season’s league and cup double-winning run, but the duo have continued to represent a mighty threat in this campaign.
Frimpong is the top sprinter in the Bundesliga this season with 701 while the Dutch master has also managed to rack up three goals and four assists, with Grimaldo falling just behind that tally with two goals and four assists. With numbers like these on either side, the youth versus experience, wide match-up at the Deutsche Bank Park on Saturday evening is set to sizzle.
Watch: Grimaldo - set-piece specialist
The fight for control
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs,” - so the Rudyar Kipling poem goes. Cool heads at the heart of this game may be called upon with the temperatures set to rise between two sides who, more often than not, love to take the game to their opponents. Experience will play a big role in that aspect and in Mario Götze and Granit Xhaka, this Matchday 24 meeting will have two of the wisest heads in the game operating not too far from one another.
FIFA World Cup winner and five-time Bundesliga champion Götze has featured in each of Eintracht’s last eight top-flight games, with the 32-year-old a crucial, experienced component among a line-up of younger stars. Often setting the tempo of his team’s attacking thrusts, Götze – who has amassed a total of 311 Bundesliga games with Dortmund, Bayern and Eintracht – is still capable of unlocking a game with his vision and eye for a defence-splitting pass.
Watch: Mario Götze still going strong
Sitting further back in the Bayer 04 engine room, Xhaka’s presence is just as vital to his team. The tireless 32-year-old missed just one Bundesliga match during Leverkusen’s run to the title last term and he has been ever-present this time around as he calls the shots from his midfield base. In the division’s top 10 for winning duels (236), the Swiss international is also third on the list for most ground covered (167.64 miles) in the league this season.
Star turns
It seems almost incomprehensible that Florian Wirtz is still only 21 and yet at this age, the 2023/24 Bundesliga Player of the Season seems almost a veteran of the Bundesliga stage, competing as he now is, in his sixth campaign in the German top tier. Could Eintracht’s fresh-faced attacking pearl Can Uzun really only be two years Wirtz’s junior and enjoying his breakthrough Bundesliga season?
Watch: Florian Wirtz's top 5 Bundesliga goals
These apparent startictical anomolies aside, Uzun’s battle with Wirtz for the attacking crown this weekend tells a tale of two of the league’s most naturally gifted players: one who is on his way to the top, and the other who is already there.
The young Turkey international Uzun blazed a trail at former club Nuremberg and he has since stepped up to the Bundesliga big-time, where he is determined to make his name and show Eintracht fans exactly what he is capable of. For one so young, Uzun’s numbers (four goals and an assist in just four Bundesliga starts, or 16 games) are admirable and point to a determination to one day reach the dizzying heights of Wirtz.
Uzun may well one day do just that, yet for now, Leverkusen’s No.10 is the undisputed star and having moved to the top of the assists charts (with 10) last weekend against Kiel, Wirtz’s comined goal involvements (19) place him just behind Harry Kane (on 27) as currently the most dangerous player in the Bundesliga. What’s more, the Bayer 04 attacker – who has hit the woodwork a league-high four times – is the league leader in duels won (320), proving that the Pulheim native has added yet another aspect to his increasingly rounded game.
Watch: Last time out - when Bayer 04 edged Eintracht
Forward fireworks
Already impressing prior to Omar Marmoush’s departure to English Premier League side Manchester City, Hugo Ekitiké stepped front of stage at Frankfurt with the Egyptian’s departure and has been steadily growing into his newfound responsibiliies of late.
The likes of Elye Wahi and Michy Batshuayi were drafted in as support during the winter transfer widow, but it is Ekitiké who is very much the main man up top for the Eagles. In the first three games in all competitions after it was announced Marmsouh was leaving the club, Frankfurt’s young French forward scored four goals – including a double at Hoffenheim - and provided an assist. He then took his tally for the campaign to 12 goals with a strike in the 1-1 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach, when he was Eintracht’s stand-out player. A 50th competitive game in Frankfurt colours might be the perfect time for the 22-year-old to celebrate a match-winner this weekend.
Czech striker Patrik Schick has three goals more than Ekitiké this term but the visiting Werkself could well opt for Victor Boniface to start at Deutsche Bank Park as they look to outscore Eintracht. The Nigerian powerhouse has form against Die Adler, having scored in each of his three games against Saturday’s opponents. That run includes the winning header he netted in a 2-1 triumph for Bayer when the teams met on Matchday 7.
Will Bayer's strikeforce come out on top when the teams go to battle once more on Saturday? You can follow all of the action from Frankfurt right here on bundesliga.com and across our social media channels on Saturday (kick-off: 6.30pm CET).
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