Frankfurt stand between Chelsea and a Europa League final

Chelsea head to Germany to take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League semi-final first-leg.

The Commerzbank-Arena holds the first of the two Europa League semi-finals as Chelsea travel to Germany.

The Europa League has been a welcomed addition to The Eagles’ schedule, despite losing one of the legs’s in the Quarter-final to SL Benfica. In this competition, they have only lost twice and have never lost at home when playing in the UEL.

Maurizio Sarri has struggled domestically with his side barely proving more than a top six Premier League outfit, although the Blues did make the Carabao Cup Final and have the chance to reach a European final.

Frankfurt stunned European football by winning all of their group H matches, meaning they topped a group with Italian giants Lazio and one of French football’s biggest sides in Marseille.

Since making it into the knockout stages last season’s eighth spaced Bundesliga side have beaten Rapid Wien, Inter Milan and most recent beat Portuguese Giants Benfica, drawing with them 4-4 on aggregate and progressing on away goals.

Sarri’s Chelsea were one of the favourites to be crowned champions of this tournament and they have delivered perfectly remaining unbeaten the entire competition so far. Drawing only with MOL Vidi in Hungary as the game ended 2-2.

After making the knockout round’s the blues have beaten Allsvenskan second-placed Malmo FF, second-placed Ukraine Premier League team Dynamo Kiev and Slavia Prague who finished second in Czech league last season.

Frankfurt manager Adi Hütter gave his opinion on Chelsea saying:

“Physically they are very strong, the motivation is strong and to be out there against Chelsea, you don’t need to motivate a player. You have to have a good feeling. They play very fast; you have to be fast in your head. There is a great atmosphere, but we have to do the work as well and don’t concede them too much space.

“I don’t think that they are doing so bad away, they only had one draw away, they won all the games away. We want to achieve a good situation and we will try to take advantage tomorrow and win it.”

Chelsea boss Sarri spoke about the importance of this Europa League campaign:

“With Naples I played eight matches and lost one, the feeling for this competition is good. We need top four in the Premier League, we want to get into the Champions League. It is very difficult to get into top four of Premier League, in the final of League Cup we had to get through Liverpool and Tottenham twice, then City in the final. It’s like a Champions League.”

Bundesliga side Frankfurt currently have four players that will miss the first leg of their exciting battle with Chelsea. Striker Sébastien Haller (stomach), Midfielder Marc Stendara (back) and left-back Taleb Tawatha (ankle) are all missing due to injury.

Croatian forward Ante Rebić is suspended for the first-leg due to too many yellow cards; but he will be back for the second leg though.

Chelsea will be without Callum Hudson-Odoi (Achilles), Antonio Rüdiger (Knee) and Ethan Ampadu (Back) for both legs of this European encounter as all have been sidelined for the remainder of the season.

Brazilian winger Willian has recovered from a knock and will travel to Germany, though Gary Cahill (Achilles) will miss this tie but could make it back for the second leg as he is expected to return within a week.

Luka Jović has been one of the top breakout stars this season, which has earned him a permanent move to Frankfurt ahead of possibly another big move in the summer for the Serbian striker.

This season he is the second top scorer in the Europa League with eight goals during his sides current run. The striker has also scored 25 times in all competitions, which has lead to him being the joint second top scorer in his domestic league with Paco Alcácer on 17. Only Robert Lewandowski has scored more in the Bundesliga with 21 goals.

It’s a no brainer to who is Chelsea’s most influential and important player, as Eden Hazard is the London based side’s top scorer with 19 goals and second highest assister with 13, only Willian tops him with 14.

Former Arsenal star Olivier Giroud has been possibly the player of the entire Europa League campaign with 10 goals in 11 games the Frenchman is the leading scorer in the tournament.