Eintracht Frankfurt vs Fortuna Dusseldorf
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Today’s free tip is in the German Bundesliga encounter between Eintracht Frankfurt and Fortuna Dusseldorf.
In the members section, I’ve been laying into Eintracht Frankfurt for a good couple of weeks now, opposing them with a bit of regularity. This is because I had the misfortune to watch them take on Flora Tallinn and Vaduz in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers, and they struggled like crazy to break those teams down in three out of the four matches they played. They struggled against TSG Hoffenheim last weekend, and didn’t deserve to win the match – only poor finishing from the visitors and bad marking from one corner afforded the hosts a win. They couldn’t break down Racing Club Strasbourg away from home, losing 1-0. They were totally outplayed in the first-half of their game against RB Leipzig, and although they came back into it in the second-half, they still didn’t penetrate the RB Leipzig defence enough to deserve something from the game.
The problem has been that they’ve not replaced Jovic and Haller. Now, I’m not someone that goes around, blaring about how good these two players are going to be in the future. Frankly, I think they both hit their highest sustainable level by playing for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. Haller is a decent enough target man that had a very good campaign, and Jovic is a mobile, clever striker that had a very good campaign. Both were only in the shop window because of Austrian boss Hutter, though. His style pandered to their strengths, and that’s what made them look as good as they unquestionably did. I’ve nothing against either of them; I hope they both prove me wrong and make it to the top level – but I doubt it. I think Real Madrid are already regretting signing Jovic with the rumour mill suggesting that they’re looking to loan him out.
However, despite those two players being somewhat overrated by the masses, I do think that them both leaving at once was a problem for Eintracht Frankfurt, which is easy enough to understand. For an intelligent manager like Hutter, I didn’t honestly think that Eintracht Frankfurt would struggle to do so, not with an extra 100 mil in the bank! However, he seemingly opted not to do that so Eintracht Frankfurt’s threat all but went in the blink of an eye because there’s no way Paciencia can do either of those two jobs. He’s a decent backup, nothing more, a striker that will forever linger in his father’s shadow. They brought in young Serbian forward Joveljic but I think it’s been quickly made apparent that he’s going to need time to get used to this level. Despite all of that, Eintracht Frankfurt still didn’t buy replacements so they’ve not hurt teams.
I would like to say that Eintracht Frankfurt haven’t been bad this season, though. The rest of their team looks absolutely fine, which it should – it’s the same team that amazed the Bundesliga last season! They’re still controlling the ball well. They’re still using boatloads of pace down the flanks. They’re still getting forward and defending as one. This is a very solid, impressive unit. The problem was that their attack was completely ineffectual. Anyway, Eintracht Frankfurt have finally sorted at least one of the two positions by acquiring towering Dutch forward Bas Dost from Sporting Clube de Portugal, and it’s widely expected that he’ll debutise today. If he doesn’t, feel free to ignore this tip entirely because without him, it’s the same blunt attack that Eintracht Frankfurt have used all season long.
Dost can play the Haller role perfectly, though. He’s been one of Sporting Clube de Portugal’s best players for years now, and he’s been around long enough to know how to make an impression at a club like Eintracht Frankfurt. All of the pieces are already in place to provide good service for a gargantuan target man like Dost so I really don’t see it taking long for him to adapt in Germany. Subsequently, I believe we’ll see a gradual return to reliability for Eintracht Frankfurt, starting today. I still want to see them sign another striker – someone with pace – to help with counters and flick-ons but at least Dost is a step in the right direction, and Eintracht Frankfurt are fortunate enough to not be facing a very good side today.
Fortuna Dusseldorf worked wonders last season because of one man; Lukebakio. The promising Belgian has now left the club though, as his loan deal from Watford expired, and unsurprisingly a richer German club than Fortuna Dusseldorf (Hertha Berlin) went and signed him. That was a great bit of business for everybody except Fortuna Dusseldorf. Now they’re back to square one, trying – and failing – to find Bundesliga level players that would be prepared to play for them.
The players they’ve brought in are as follows; Nuhu (TSG Hoffenheim), Suttner (Brighton & Hove Albion), Baker (Chelsea), Ampomah (Waasland-Beveren), Steffen (Manchester City), Tekpetey (Schalke 04), Thommy (VfB Stuttgart) and Kastenmeier (VfB Stuttgart). The best way I can describe the above signings are to say that they’re very, very risky. Just three of them have any kind of reasonable Bundesliga experience, and none of them have done particularly well in it. Nuhu couldn’t steer clear of errors at TSG Hoffenheim, Suttner came on loan last season and did a reasonable job, and Thommy was never a regular. It’s not so much to look at, is it?
I’m not saying that their risks won’t pay off, mind you. For what it’s worth, I think they’ve taken punts on players that have a reasonable probability of doing a decent job for them. Whether it pays off or not is another matter entirely though. What’s quite clear is that boss Funkel clearly wanted more pace in this squad, and that’s not a surprise. Too much went through Lukebakio last season. They needed to bring something that was harder to deal with than one player so they’ve now brought in a lot of mobile players, especially in attack. Hand on heart, I couldn’t say that many of them are particularly good but maybe, just maybe, it’ll do a job for Fortuna Dusseldorf in due course.
That time is not now, however. It takes time to integrate players into a new squad, and some of them haven’t even featured yet. I think their defending has been especially poor (they should have conceded far more against Werder Bremen than they actually did). I think they’ve struggled to control games for any length of time in midfield. I also think that they’re lacking a good finisher, although that problem will be solved soon enough as Polish hitman Kownacki is almost back to full fitness. Boss Funkel made it clear that he could play in Frankfurt today but it was highly unlikely he’d be starting. Ultimately, I think Fortuna Dusseldorf are in for a long, hard campaign. Whether they stay up or not depends entirely upon how well their ‘risky’ signings do, in my opinion.
As far as today’s trip to Frankfurt goes, it’s hard to be optimistic about Fortuna Dusseldorf’s chances. They’re facing a team that is seriously good at keeping the ball so counter-attacks are limited. They’ve got a lot of determined, fast players in wide positions so containing them is tough. All that was going in Fortuna Dusseldorf’s favour was that Eintracht Frankfurt had no penetration up until this week – but now they do in Dost. I think this game will basically be about Eintracht Frankfurt knocking at the door, and it’s up to them as to when they almost inevitably crash through it. Hopefully it’ll be early enough for there to be more room for the hosts to grab another goal or two to seal the deal.
Either way, I think it’s logical to trust Eintracht Frankfurt to win this match at a bare minimum. Having watched how badly Fortuna Dusseldorf have defended, I think it’s also logical to back Eintracht Frankfurt to beat the -1 Asian Handicap, which is my main tip. I’m going to take a punt on Dost to score on his debut at 11/10 too.
Verdict 1: Eintracht Frankfurt to beat the -1 Asian Handicap at 11/10.
Verdict 2: Bas Dost to score at any time at 11/10.
Sunday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Austrian Bundesliga:
Austria Vienna vs Rapid Vienna
St. Polten vs Hartberg
SCR Altach vs Sturm Graz
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Club Brugge vs Racing Genk
RSC Anderlecht vs Standard de Liege
Zulte-Waregem vs Antwerp
AA Gent vs Cercle Brugge
Brazilian Serie A:
Fortaleza vs Goias
Flamengo vs Palmeiras
Cruzeiro vs Vasco da Gama
Corinthians vs Atletico Mineiro
Bulgarian A PFG:
Vitosha Bistritsa vs Tsarsko selo
CSKA Sofia vs Levski Sofia
Botev Vratsa vs Ludogorets Razgrad
Croatian Prva Liga:
Varazdin vs Gorica
Rijeka vs Inter Zapresic
Czech Republic Liga 1:
Opava vs Slavia Prague
Teplice vs Karvina
Baumit Jablonec vs Banik Ostrava
Ceske Budejovice vs Zlin
Sparta Prague vs Sigma Olomouc
Danish Superligaen:
AGF vs Esbjerg
Randers vs Silkeborg
AC Horsens vs Lyngby
Aalborg BK vs FC Copenhagen
FC Midtjylland vs Brondby
English Premier League:
Everton vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Tulevik vs Kuressaare
Flora Paide vs Flora Tallinn
FCI Levadia Tallinn vs Maardu
Faroese Meistaradeildin:
Vikingur Gotu vs IF
KI vs HB
NSI Runavik vs EB/Streymur
B36 Torshavn vs Skala
TB vs AB
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
HJK vs RoPS
FC Lahti vs IFK Mariehamn
French Ligue 1:
Stade de Reims vs Lille OSC
Stade Rennais vs OGC Nice
Racing Club Strasbourg vs AS Monaco
Olympique de Marseille vs AS Saint-Etienne
German Bundesliga:
Werder Bremen vs Augsburg
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Fortuna Dusseldorf
German Bundesliga 2:
Hamburger SV vs Hannover 96
Holstein Kiel vs Erzgebirge Aue
Osnabruck vs Karlsruher SC
Hungarian Liga 1:
Ferencvaros vs Diosgyori VTK
Icelandic Pepsideild:
IBV vs Valur Reykjavik
HK vs Vikingur Reykjavik
KR vs IA
Breidablik Kopavogur vs Fylkir Reykjavik
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Hapoel Be’er Sheva vs Hapoel Hadera
Hapoel Ra’anana vs Beitar Jerusalem
Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv
Italian Serie A:
SS Lazio vs AS Roma
Atalanta Bergamo vs Torino
Cagliari vs Internazionale
Genoa vs ACF Fiorentina
Lecce vs Hellas Verona
Sassuolo vs Sampdoria
Udinese vs Parma
Italian Serie B:
Pescara vs Pordenone
Frosinone vs Ascoli
Dutch Eredivisie:
Twente Enschede vs FC Utrecht
Sparta Rotterdam vs AFC Ajax Amsterdam
Willem II vs Feyenoord Rotterdam
Vitesse Arnhem vs AZ Alkmaar
RKC Waalwijk vs PSV Eindhoven
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Ranheim vs Kristiansund
Sarpsborg 08 vs Viking Stavanger
Tromso vs Haugesund
Lillestrom vs Brann Bergen
Mjondalen vs Molde FK
Valerenga Oslo vs Rosenborg BK
Portuguese Liga 1:
Tondela vs Santa Clara
FC Porto vs Vitoria Guimaraes
Sporting Braga vs SL Benfica
Portuguese Liga 2:
Estoril vs Varzim
Mafra vs Academica de Coimbra
UD Oliveirense vs Farense
Chaves vs Penafiel
Academico Viseu vs Sporting Covilha
Russian Premier League:
Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast vs FK Krasnodar
Arsenal Tula vs CSKA Moscow
Spartak Moscow vs Zenit St. Petersburg
Spanish Primera Liga:
Valencia CF vs Real Mallorca
Atletico Madrid vs Eibar
RCD Espanyol vs Granada
Villarreal CF vs Real Madrid
Swedish Allsvenskan:
GIF Sundsvall vs IFK Goteborg
Kalmar FF vs Malmo FF
AIK Solna vs Djurgarden
IFK Norrkoping vs Hammarby
BK Hacken Goteborg vs Falkenberg
Swiss Super League:
FC Basel vs Lugano
FC Luzern vs Young Boys Bern
FC Thun vs FC Sion
Swiss Challenge League:
Vaduz vs Grasshopper Zurich
Turkish Super Lig:
Genclerbirligi vs Istanbul BB
Sivasspor vs Gazisehir Gaziantep
Fenerbahce vs Trabzonspor
Yeni Malatyaspor vs Alanyaspor
Enjoy your free betting tips!