Photo Credit: DW.com
German high flyers Eintracht Frankfurt host Inter Milan in the first leg of their Europa League tie, hoping to take a good advantage to Italy and continue thier impressive run in the competition.
Frankfurt coasted through the group stage, winning all six of their fixtures before navigating a difficult tie in Shakhtar Donetsk to make it to the last 16. Inter dropped from the Champions League after dramatically finishing third in the group behind Tottenham, dropping into the Europea League last 32. They were drawn against Rapid Vienna in a tie they easily won 5-0 on aggregate.
Adi Hutter, the Franfurt boss, will hope his attack trio can continue the blistering form shown in the first half of the season and put their Italian opponents to the sword. Sebastien Haller, Ante Rebic and Luka Jovic have scored a combined 47 goals and 22 assists in all competitions this season.
Luciano Spalleti has acquired problems in his strikeforce recently. Star striker Mauro Icardi has been locked in a stalemate around contract talks and his agent and wife Wanda Nara causing issues at the club. This forced the Inter heirarchy to strip the Argentine of the captaincy and hand it to Samir Handanovic.
The forward has also refused to travel with the squad to some Serie A matches. The situation has given Lautaro Martinez the opportunity to impress, but has failed to hit the standards set by Icardi himself.
Inter will be without Keita Balde and Šime Vrsaljko whilst the Icardi situation means he may again not be involved in the squad. Frankfurt may be without Rebic, one of their feared forward line, whilst Gelson Fernandes has missed the last three games through injury and is expected to miss this game too.
The statistics favour the German side, they have won eight and drawn 1 of their Europa League games this season. Whilst Inter Milan have won just two of their last 11 European away games. The last time Frankfurt were involved with a goalless European tie was against English side Newcastle, in the 2006/07 season.
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