After winning their last two games, the second against regional rivals VfB Stuttgart, Freiburg could even go top of the table in the admittedly unlikely event of a six-goal victory. "Obviously we'd love to win every game. But winning isn't something we can take for granted. We know it's going to be very tough at Frankfurt, coach Robin Dutt said.
Losing Streak
The statistics back up that admission. Freiburg have lost on their last five visits to the city on the Rhine, and victory there on Friday would be the first in 14 years. Papiss Demba Cisse is one man who could just make the difference though: the on-form striker has hit the net in every game so far this season and leads the Bundesliga scoring chart on four goals alongside Kaiserslautern's Srdjan Lakic.
On the down side, French duo Simon Pouplin and Jonathan Jäger are both struggling with injuries. Should keeper Pouplin miss out with an inflamed ankle joint, Oliver Baumann will take over between the posts again as he did against Stuttgart.
Home Win overdue for Frankfurt
For the home team, skipper Chris is set to return after being sidelined by the double-whammy of a groin operation and a bout of stomach flu. The Brazilian central defender will thus have the chance of getting up close and personal with Cisse. "We know how dangerous Cisse is. He's a good finisher both on the ground and with his head, said Frankfurt's Michael Skibbe, who incidentally has yet to lose a game as a coach against Freiburg.
After starting 2010-11 with back-to-back defeats, Eintracht pulled off an impressive 4-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach last time out. Now the aim is to finally give the home fans something to cheer about as well. "The only way we can capitalise on the three points at Gladbach is by beating Freiburg, Skibbe asserted, a view shared by captain Chris: "We want to keep that going and present our fans with three points again. It is now almost six months since Frankfurt last won a game at the Commerzbank Arena, a 3-2 success against Bayer Leverkusen back on April 3rd.
Possible Line-Ups
Eintrach Frankfurt: Nikolov - Jung, Franz, Chris, Tzavellas - Ochs, Meier, Schwegler, Köhler - Halil Altintop, Gekas
SC Freiburg: Baumann - Mujdza, Barth, Butscher, Bastians - Schuster - Abdessadki, Rosenthal, Makiadi, Nicu - Cissé
