Eintracht Frankfurt vs Benfica 19/04/19

19 April 2019

Eintracht Frankfurt and Benfica go head-to-head at the Commerzbank-Arena for the return leg of their Europa League quarter-finals tie as the hosts hope to overturn a 2-goal deficit from the first leg.

Having lost both of their previous competitive games by a miserable -4 goal difference (S3, C7), the hosts are enduring the most challenging period since the turn of the year. Before back-to-back failures, Die Adler have gone unbeaten in 15 straight games across all competitions (W9, D6) with seven of those triumphs saw them scored 2+ match goals. Frankfurt’s sudden drop-off in form could be closely related to the fact Adi Hütter’s men have gone from five successive clean sheets to three games in which they’ve failed to preserve a clean slate. But, Frankfurt’s impressive home performances in the Europa League have seen them pull off four wins in five outings (W4, D1) netting precisely four goals in three of those victories.

A 4-2 win in the reverse fixture gives the visitors a big advantage here, but two defeats in their last five away games across all competitions (W3, L2) indicates they may have a problem keeping their lead. Having joined the Europa League after failing to go past the Champions League group stage, the Portuguese giants have struggled to impress away from home during their European adventure this term. Bruno Lage’s men have suffered three losses on five European road trips so far (W2, L3) netting just one goal in those four failures. The one thing that can encourage the traveling side is their outstanding attacking output in the last three competitive outings as they’ve bagged precisely four goals per match across those meetings.