Eintracht Frankfurt vs Darmstadt

Eintracht Frankfurt and Darmstadt are set to face each other in a tasty-looking DFB-Pokal last-16 contest at the Deutsche Bank Park.

Eintracht Frankfurt opened their DFB-Pokal tour with a scintillating 4-0 romping of 2. Bundesliga whipping boys Magdeburg before dismantling lower-league Stuttgart Kickers 2-0 in the last round to set up this tie. Bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since a 2019/20 semi-final exit, ‘Die Adler’ come into this encounter amid a decent Bundesliga form in 2023 (W2, D2). After back-to-back 1-1 draws against Freiburg and Bayern Munich, Oliver Glasner’s side thumped Hertha Berlin 3-0 at the weekend, making it three straight multi-goal margin wins at home in a row.  Having won their last home meeting with Darmstadt 2-0 back in 2017, Frankfurt are seemingly in a pole position to navigate this tie and maintain their form uplift ahead of their Champions League last-16 tie against Napoli.

In the meantime, Darmstadt painted their DFB-Pokal curtain-raiser with flying colors, thrashing Ingolsdadt 3-0 on the road before they upset the odds by beating long-term Bundesliga tenants Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 in the previous round. If the visitors’ outrageous start to the new calendar year is anything to go by, Frankfurt’s win is anything but a foregone conclusion. Torsten Lieberknecht’s men have won both league games in 2023 by 2+ goals ‘to nil,’ including a stellar 4-0 victory at Sandhausen at the weekend. Impressively, you’d need to go back to mid-July for Darmstadt’s last competitive loss away from home, with ‘Die Lilien’ going unbeaten on nine successive travels in the build-up to this fixture (W7, D2).