Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Eintracht Frankfurt preview: Hosts targeting first win

Gladbach interim place Eugen Polanski is preparing for his first home game after taking over the reins following Gerardo Seoane’s dismissal earlier this month. Polanski looked set to start his tenure with a narrow 1-0 win, only for substitute Haris Tabaković to net a 92nd-minute winner at BayArena.

The crucial header ended Gladbach’s wait for their first goal of the league season, although they are still languishing in 17th place in the Bundesliga table. Die Fohlen have gone 11 Bundesliga matches without a win since beating RB Leipzig at Borussia-Park in March. They are now one game away from equalling the club’s longest winless run in Bundesliga history. 

Their hopes of ending their six-month wait for a win will be tempered by the fact that they have failed to win any of their previous eight league meetings with Frankfurt (D4, L4). As a result, they will enter Saturday’s fixture with aspirations of beating die Adler for the first time since running out 4-0 winners in April 2021.

Gladbach are unable to call upon Nathan Ngoumou, Tim Kleindienst and Robin Hack. There are also doubts surrounding the availability of Franck Honorat and Gio Reyna. 

Predicted lineup: Nicolas; Diks, Elvedi, Chiarodia; Scally, Reitz, Engelhardt, Ulrich; Stöger, Castrop, Machino

Frankfurt are sitting in sixth spot in the Bundesliga table after collecting six points from their opening four games. In fact, die Adler collected all of those points from their first two matches, following back-to-back wins over Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim. However, they went on to lose 3-1 away to Bayer Leverkusen, before falling to a 4-3 defeat in last Sunday’s home meeting with Union Berlin.

After going 2-0 and 4-1 down, Frankfurt threatened to stage a comeback when Can Uzun and Jonathan Burkardt found the net late on. However, they ultimately ran out of time in their quest to find an equaliser, as they fell to their first home league defeat since losing to the same team back in March.