Eintracht Frankfurt and Hoffenheim will both endeavour to keep their strong starts to the Bundesliga season going when the two sides lock horns at the Deutsche Bank Park on Saturday afternoon.
Frankfurt enjoyed a 3-1 victory over Hertha Berlin last time out, while Hoffenheim marched to a historic 4-1 win over champions Bayern Munich.
Match preview
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Having been held to a 1-1 draw by newly-promoted Arminia Bielefeld in the opening gameweek of the season, Frankfurt managed to get their campaign up and running with a comfortable win over Hertha Berlin last Friday.
Martin Hinteregger's own goal was the only dampening aspect of that victory, with Andre Silva, Bas Dost and Sebastian Rode all netting at the correct end of the pitch for Adi Hutter's men in gameweek two.
Die Adler were full value for their first victory of the season and will look to keep that momentum going as they return to familiar surroundings, where they managed to overcome Hoffenheim 1-0 last season.
However, the visitors are sure to be heading into this game with an equal or greater amount of confidence after they sent shockwaves throughout the footballing world with their performance against Bayern Munich on Sunday.
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Bundesliga and Champions League winners Bayern Munich put eight past an out-of-sorts Schalke side upon their return to top-flight action, and the Hoffenheim faithful would have certainly been expecting an onslaught from the champions in gameweek two.
However, the Bavarian giants were humbled by Sebastian Hoeness's men, who ran out 4-1 winners courtesy of goals from Ermin Bicakcic, Munas Dabbur and a double from Andrej Kramaric, who now boasts five strikes from two games.
Bayern had not suffered defeat in the German top flight since December before taking on Die Kraichgauer, who currently sit top of the table at this very early stage of the campaign.
Augsburg are the only other side who have taken maximum points thus far, although Hoffenheim are now facing a Frankfurt side whom they are winless against since 2017, and Die Adler have prevailed in the last four meetings between the two clubs.
Eintracht Frankfurt Bundesliga form: DW
Eintracht Frankfurt form (all competitions): WDW
Hoffenheim Bundesliga form: WW
Hoffenheim form (all competitions): WWW
Team News
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Frankfurt's Filip Kostic had to be forced off in the victory over Hertha and will play no part in this one, meaning that Steven Zuber will deputise on the left-hand side for the next few weeks.
Evan N'Dicka is out for the long term, while Jetro Willems is back in training but will not be ready for the weekend.
Other than that, few changes are expected from last weekend's victorious side, with Almamy Toure set to keep his place on the right over Danny da Costa.
As for Hoffenheim, Hoeness will already be forced into one change from the win over Bayern, with Bicakcic being subbed off before half time after netting his side's opener.
The club have since confirmed that the Bosnian will be out for several months after tearing his ACL, so Kevin Akpoguma will likely move back into Hoffenheim's three-man defence.
Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Abraham, Hasebe, Hinteregger; Toure, Ilsanker, Rode, Zuber; Kamada; Silva, Dost
Hoffenheim possible starting lineup:
Baumann; Vogt, Akpoguma, Posch; Kaderabek, Samassekou, Geiger, Skov; Baumgartner; Kramaric, Dabbur
We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Hoffenheim
It remains to be seen whether or not Hoffenheim's memorable victory against Bayern Munich was nothing more than a fluke, but if last weekend's performance is anything to go by, Hoeness and his players ought to feel capable of beating anyone. Frankfurt have also impressed in the opening stages of the new campaign and boast a strong recent record against their opponents, so we expect the two sides to play out a high-scoring draw on Saturday.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home/Away:data
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Eintracht Frankfurt win with a probability of 38.46%. A win for Hoffenheim had a probability of 38.03% and a draw had a probability of 23.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Eintracht Frankfurt win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.39%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.64%) and 2-0 (5.29%). The likeliest Hoffenheim win was 1-2 (8.33%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.51%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with an 8.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 2-1 win for Eintracht Frankfurt in this match.
