Backdrop
After the commanding 4-0 triumph in Heidenheim, which was the Eagles’ seventh consecutive win in all competitions, Dino Toppmöller’s charges are back in action on Wednesday evening (20:45 CET) in the DFB Cup last 16 in Leipzig.
Marco Rose’s Leipzig side suffered a heavy 5-1 defeat at home to VfL Wolfsburg at the weekend, but they have won each of their last ten DFB Cup assignments on home turf – doing so by a cumulative scoreline of 26-4. Eintracht’s first and to date only victory in Leipzig arrived in January this year.
Looking back
They recorded that success on Matchday 17 of the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign, when Niels Nkounkou teed up Ansgar Knauff to score the only goal of the game. Nkounkou could come into the side for this next meeting in place of the suspended Arthur Theate.
In terms of the teams’ cup history, memories of Leipzig’s 2-0 win in the 2023 final are still fresh. Prior to that, the Eagles earned a 3-1 victory in the round of 16 in February 2020 at Deutsche Bank Park, having also beaten Leipzig 2-0 in the Bundesliga just ten days earlier.
Cup record
Frankfurt have lifted the DFB Cup five times and have finished as runners-up on a further four occasions. They first reached the final over 60 years ago when they faced 1860 Munich in the 1964 showpiece.
Leipzig first reached the final in 2019 but ended up losing 3-0 to Bayern Munich. Two years later they suffered a 4-1 reverse in the decider against Borussia Dortmund, but beat Freiburg 4-2 on penalties to take the title in 2022. They defended their crown the following year with that 2-0 win over Eintracht.
Present day
Leipzig come into the game on the back of a winless November in which they drew three and lost three of their fixtures. They have not earned any points yet from their first five games in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
Toppmöller’s Eagles are flying, by way of contrast. Eintracht currently sit second in the Bundesliga standings after Matchday 12 and are third in the UEFA Europa League after Matchday 5. On Wednesday evening they are determined to progress to the DFB Cup quarter-finals.
