MADRID, 20 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Eintracht Frankfurt and Naples begin this Tuesday at Deutsche Bank Park (9:00 p.m.) their knockout round of the Champions League, a match in which the leader of the Italian Serie A wants to confirm his good feelings and pass once again the roller to the current champion of the Europa League, which opens in the ‘Champions’ qualifiers.
The Neapolitan team is going through perhaps one of the most solid seasons in its history, after remaining undefeated during its first 17 games in all competitions -15 wins and two draws-; His reliability allows him to lead the transalpine championship with a 15-point advantage over the second classified after signing 20 wins, two draws and only one loss.
In the maximum continental competition, Luciano Spalletti’s men also staged the most outstanding performance of the group stage, where only the defeat on the last day against Liverpool (2-0), with the classification as first already tied, stained their even then immaculate career, with five wins and 20 goals scored, more than any other team in the tournament.
At the back, with the solvency offered by the line of four formed by Di Lorenzo, Kim, Rrahmani and Mário Rui and the presence of Meret under the sticks, the Partenopean team has kept a clean sheet in four of their last five games -conceding only a goal against Roma-, in which he has instead scored 12.
Opposite, Eintracht Frankfurt will make its historic debut in a ‘Champions’ qualifiers -the eleventh German team to achieve it- after finishing second in Group D, only behind Tottenham. Despite losing to Sporting de Portugal and the English, with whom they also drew in Germany, the Teutonic team came back with two wins in their last two games against Olympique de Marseille and the Portuguese side.
Oliver Glasner’s men, with the only loss being French midfielder Éric Junior Dina-Ebimbe due to an ankle injury, have enjoyed some regularity in the Bundesliga, where they are sixth -the last place to enter continental competition- and where only Cologne have been able to beat them since the championship resumed after the winter break.
Italians and Germans will meet for the third time in their history, after meeting in the round of 16 tie for the 1994-95 UEFA Cup; the ‘Eagles’ won 1-0 at home, before securing a place in the quarterfinals with a 1-0 win at San Paolo. Napoli, however, won their last two away games against German teams: against Wolfsburg in April 2015 (1-4) and against RB Leipzig in February 2018 (0-2).