Eintracht Frankfurt vs Napoli

Eintracht Frankfurt’s maiden foray into the Champions League knockout stages pits them against runaway Serie A leaders Napoli at the Deutsche Bank Park in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

Scoring on either side of halftime saw Eintracht Frankfurt dispatch Werder Bremen 2-0 at the weekend to stay in touch with the Bundesliga top four and maintain a 100% win ratio in competitive home matches in 2023. In addition to winning all four home outings since the turn of the year, ‘Die Adler’ netted an average of three goals per game, suggesting their impressive European record against Italian opponents (W6, D3, L2) could improve this midweek. Adding to this sentiment, last season’s Europa League winners have only lost two of their 19 outings in European competitions under current boss Oliver Glasner (W10, D7). Back-to-back victories to cap off a turbulent Champions League Group D campaign, leading to a runner-up finish behind Tottenham Hotspur, saw Glasner become the first Austrian manager to win consecutive games in the competition.

On the other hand, visiting Napoli scored two unanswered first-half goals in a routine 2-0 away league triumph at Sassuolo last weekend, maintaining a 15-point lead at the top of the Serie A standings. Though they’re seemingly on the verge of ending a 33-year Scudetto wait after winning seven successive top-flight matches, ‘I Partenopei’ are equally confident about reaching the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in the club’s history. Like making it out of the Champions League group phase as section winners for the first time since 2016/17 wasn’t enough to give them confidence, Luciano Spalletti’s high-flyers netted a competition-high 20 goals in the process. Adding to that tally looks likely as they’ve won their last two European contests against German opposition by multi-goal margins after going winless in the first ten beforehand (D5, L5).