Lokomotive Leipzig vs Eintracht Frankfurt

Eintracht Frankfurt head to the Bruno-Plache-Stadion to meet fourth-tier Lokomotive Leipzig in the opening DFB-Pokal round.

Lokomotive Leipzig’s second successive season in the Regionalliga Nordost has been off to a mixed start as they followed a come-from-behind 2-1 home win over Altglienicke in a curtain-raising contest with an underwhelming 3-2 loss at Meuselwitz last time out. Interestingly, both matches saw the winner recover from losing at halftime ‘to nil,’ with the decisive goal coming beyond the 80th minute on each occasion. It’s been almost three decades since Lokomotive Leipzig last tackled Frankfurt in a competitive encounter, but a sizeable gulf in class suggests their three-game winless H2H streak won’t end this weekend (D1, L2). They’ll at least be looking to give the Bundesliga heavyweights a run for their money, inspired by the fact they’ve scored in their last four H2Hs.

As for Eintracht Frankfurt, last season’s disappointing 7th-place finish in the Bundesliga spelled the end of Oliver Glasner’s managerial tenure at the Deutsche Bank Park, with Dino Toppmoller taking charge of the team in the summer. However, barring a 15-1 demolition of amateur side Braunfels on his touchline debut, Toppmoller has struggled to inspire Frankfurt’s resurgence, going winless in his last four pre-season friendlies (D2, L2), three of which saw ‘Die Adler’ net under 1.5 goals. But the visitors should steamroll into the next round, seeking another stellar DFB-Pokal run after reaching last season’s grand final, only to lose 2-0 to RB Leipzig in the showpiece event. A clean sheet would be a nice confidence boost for Frankfurt after they’ve managed just one shutout in their last ten competitive games.