Bayern Munich vs Eintracht Frankfurt: Die Roten look to maintain unbeaten start to 2020
Bayern Munich will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start to 2020 when they welcome Eintracht Frankfurt to the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Although die Roten have not been in live action for over two months after COVID-19 spread from Wuhan, China to Germany, shutting down most activities, including football, the Bavarian titans showed that the interruption hasn’t affected them one bit last weekend. The current league leaders picked up a comfortable 2-0 win over Union Berlin without exerting too much effort, with Robert Lewandowski again setting a new record as he earned his 26th goal of the season, and will be gunning for revenge when Eintracht visit the Allianz Arena.
Why? For starters, Eintracht humiliated them 5-1 last year. That was shortly before Niko Kovac resigned, and that awful defeat will still be quite fresh in Bayern’s minds. Eintracht are also the same team that beat them in the DFB-Pokal in 2018, so die Adler have become a little thorn in their sides as of late. This season, they are just one of four teams to have beaten Bayern, albeit no one has managed to that in 2020, and certainly, die Roten are not going to allow anyone to start that on Saturday.
Especially not with der Klassiker on the horizon. Dortmund will surely be watching this match closely, as it takes place after their clash with Wolfsburg.
From Eintracht’s perspective, this game couldn’t come at a worse time. Although they sit in 13th place, they come into this match having lost their last four games, and they will know Bayern will be eager for revenge. In addition, the visitors have the worst away record of any side in the division. That includes even teams like Paderborn and Werder Bremen, who sit in the relegation spots. Eintracht have picked up a measly seven points (two wins and a draw) from a possible 36 points to date, while losing nine times. Not exactly encouraging reading ahead of their trip to the Allianz Arena, where they have lost in their last ten visits.
In short, this looks to be a one-sided match on paper. Yes, they did pull off that impressive 5-1 win in 2019, but that seems to be a lifetime ago. Bayern were really not themselves under Kovac’s tenure; they infamously were dumped out of the Champions League by Liverpool at the early knockout stages and really had to scramble and scrape in order to secure the league title. From a neutral perspective, that title battle with Dortmund was highly entertaining, but from Bayern’s perspective, it was hardly amusing, as they are used to strolling to the league title year after year without much fuss.
Since Hansi Flick took over, it’s been smoother sailing and order has been restored in the Bayern camp. Players like Thomas Muller, who looked frustrated and marginalized, are back in the fold and are enjoying their football again, and ahead of their Klassiker clash with Dortmund next week, the league leaders look to be in the right place just at the right time.
But first, they will need to take care of business against Eintracht first. And given the way they appear to have picked up without a hitch, expect them to cruise to all three points and look forward towards their big game that fans are all looking forward to in a few days’ time.
