Borussia Dortmund have had quite a horrifying week so far, both in the pitch, and off of it. They will be looking to return to winning ways and get back on track for a top 3 finish in the Bundesliga, when they are playing host to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, April 15th. Frankfurt have been great all season long, but they have severely struggled in the past couple of months, as they have yet to celebrate a league win in that span.
Eintracht Frankfurt (10-10-8) are coming into this match after securing a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Werder Bremen at home. They saw their opponents take a two goal lead by the end of the first half, but Frankfurt’s players kept their act togehter as they managed to pull even at the 73rd minute for the final 2-2. Even though they showed great resolve to come back from a two goal deficit, they remained win-less for the 9th consecutive league match (0-6-3). As a result, they have fallen off to the 9th spot of the Bundesliga, despite the fact that they were comfortably sitting inside the top 6 for most of the season. Their road record now stands at 4-8-2, where they have the 2nd worst offense with just 9 goals, against 17 conceded. The saddest thing about their road performances is the fact that not only they are coming off 4 consecutive losses, but they have failed to score a single goal in that span. They will be coming into this match with several absences, as Hasebe, Vallejo, Regasel, Medojevic, Meier and Ordonez are all unavailable, while Gustavo Varela is also listed as questionable to participate.
On the other hand, Dortmund (14-6-8) have had a lot of things happen around them in the past week, so sit tight. After being demolished by 1-4 in the German Derby against league leaders Bayern Munich, they had to pick up their pieces and host Monaco for the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday. However, in an unbelievable turn of events, the bus that carried the squad from the hotel to the stadium was attacked en route by unknown people, who threw explosive mechanisms at it, resulting in the light injuries of Spanish defender Bartra. The authorities have yet to announce who is responsible for the attack, but the most surprising thing is that the match was played the following day, where Dortmund fell by 3-2 at home, and they are now in a very bad place regarding the qualification. As far as their Bundesliga bid is concerned, Dortmund are still sitting at the 4th spot with 50 points, just a single point behind Hoffenheim and 8 points behind the 2nd Leipzig. They have been dominant as usual at home (10-0-3), where they have scored 32 goals against just 7 conceded. They will be coming into this match with quite a few injury concerns, as Durm, Schurrle, Gotze and Larsen are injured, Bartra was injured in the attack on the team’s bus, while Castro and Reus are still listed as questionable to participate.