Barcelona vs Eintracht Frankfurt

Eintracht Frankfurt travel to Camp Nou to take on Europa League favourites Barcelona in the second leg of their evenly-poised quarter-final tie. The sides shared the spoils in an enthralling 1-1 draw in Germany last time out.

Barcelona came from behind to snatch away a late 3-2 win away to La Liga relegation contenders Levante over the weekend, taking their unbeaten streak in all competitions to 15 matches (W11, D4) – the longest ongoing such run in Europe’s top-five leagues. But despite going undefeated in their last seven competitive games at Camp Nou (W5, D2), the ‘Blaugrana’ can ill-afford to get complacent. Before eking out a first-leg draw, Barca had lost three successive European meetings with German opposition by an aggregate score of 14-2. However, the Catalan heavyweights have won their last 17 home fixtures against Bundesliga visitors in major European competition, excluding Bayern. Yet, Xavi’s men have won just one of their seven previous European home outings (D3, L3), failing to get on the scoresheet four times in this run.

On the other hand, Eintracht Frankfurt came unbeaten through Europa League Group D during the autumn before leaving Barcelona’s fellow La Liga rivals Real Betis in their wake in the previous knock-out round. But things are not going Eintracht’s way by any stretch of the imagination as they head into midweek proceedings winless in six consecutive matches across all competitions (D4, L2), all of which saw them score under 1.5 goals. On the bright side, though, Oliver Glasner’s men are unbeaten in three competitive games away from home (W2, D1), while they’ve not lost any of their last eight European fixtures against Spanish clubs (W5, D3). Additionally, ‘Die Adler’ have won three of their four previous UEFA-sanctioned visits to Spain and have been victorious in all three two-legged knock-out ties versus La Liga sides.