Eintracht Frankfurt vs Arsenal 20/09/19

20 September 2019

Last season’s semi-finalists are drawn together in the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League (EL) Group F, with Eintracht Frankfurt entertaining Arsenal at the Commerzbank-Arena in the matchday one.

Frankfurt’s road to the final last season was intercepted by Chelsea who won their semi-finals tie 4-3 on penalties (1-1 H, 1-1 A). The hosts have therefore remained unbeaten at home against the Premier League clubs for the fifth time in a row (W2, D3). Die Adler broke into this term’s EL group stage after dumping out Estonia’s Flora Tallin and Liechtenstein’s Vaduz in the second and third qualifying round respectively before edging past Strasbourg in the play-offs thanks to a second-leg comeback (0-1 A, 3-0 H). What’s more, the Bundesliga giants have yet to lose the EL home fixture (W12, D3), winning all six of their previous home outings in the competition’s group stage.

As for the visitors, they’ve seen their hopes of returning to the Champions League ended by a 4-1 loss to Chelsea in the last campaign’s final. Before that, the Gunners have enjoyed a solid run of form, pulling off five straight triumphs in the EL knockout stage, including two apiece against Napoli and Valencia and one against Rennes. Additionally, it was three wins out of three for the North Londoners in the group stage last season, with all of those triumphs being accompanied by a clean sheet. Interestingly, Arsenal’s last away defeat in the EL group stage has come against the German side Koln.