Preview: Second half of season begins against Dortmund | OneFootball

Eintracht have pulled away from Borussia since the turn of the year, but they know from experience the qualities BVB have.

Backdrop

Eintracht rounded off the first half of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season with a 4-1 win at home to SC Freiburg. However, Dino Toppmöller and his team have little time for reflection as they host Borussia Dortmund at Deutsche Bank Park at 20:30 CET on Friday evening. Here is a brief summary of how things stand: Eintracht have recorded their best ever first half of a Bundesliga season since the introduction of the three-point system, while the Black and Yellows have their lowest tally after 17 matchdays since the 2014/15 campaign.

Frankfurt are third in the table, Dortmund down to ninth after the 4-2 defeat at promoted side Holstein Kiel on Tuesday. Nevertheless, Markus Krösche warned of BVB: “Dortmund are a super team, regardless of the fact they lost. It’s going to be a big challenge on Friday.” “It's more down to us than Dortmund,” Robin Koch added. “We were on top against Freiburg but we’ve also had games like the one at St. Pauli, where we weren’t dominant for 90 minutes. We’re not the finished package yet but we’re working on it every day.”

Looking back

That confidence is justifiable. For a start, Eintracht have lost just once at home in all competitions this season – against Mainz at the end of last year. On top of that, they boast the third-deadliest attack in the league with 40 goals scored. However, the Eagles did lose 2-0 in the reverse fixture in Dortmund courtesy of a Jamie Gittens brace.

In general, encounters between Frankfurt and Dortmund are often tense, highly charged affairs, although SGE have only managed to win one of the last 17 meetings (in April 2021). The last home victory over Borussia came in November 2016, when Szabolcs Huszti and Haris Seferovic were on the scoresheet.

Looking forward

“I’m looking forward to the game on Friday,” said an excited Nnamdi Collins, who played for Dortmund’s youth teams up to U23 level before moving to Frankfurt in summer 2023. “We want to produce another good performance and win the game for the fans and for ourselves.”