Preview: Dream on | OneFootball

On Wednesday Eintracht face Liverpool in a competitive game for the first time in 53 years.

Sometimes dreams do come true – although rarely as quickly as that of Mathias Beck. “I’d like a European game against Liverpool; that would be amazing,” said the Eintracht supervisory board chairman on the ‘Eintracht vom Main’ podcast at the end of May. On Wednesday 22 October that desire will become a reality when Liverpool visit Frankfurt in the UEFA Champions League (kick-off 21:00 CEST, live on DAZN and EintrachtFM).

As things stand

You don’t always get what you wish for, though, which is something both teams have experienced in recent weeks with just one win apiece from their last five matches. The Reds lost the Community Shield on penalties before embarking on a run of seven consecutive victories in all competitions. However, they have regularly lost in the closing stages of late and have suffered defeats in their last four games since the end of September.

Close calls

Of Liverpool’s 12 fixtures so far in 2025/26, 11 have ended with a one-goal difference. The nickname ‘Laterpool’ was coined in reference to their ability to come back and strike in the closing stages, but they have had a taste of their own medicine more recently. The reigning Premier League champions earned six of their seven victories this season after the 80th minute, but have lost two of their last four in stoppage time and conceded the decisive goal in a 2-1 defeat in the 84th minute against arch-rivals Manchester United on Sunday.

Looking back

But it would be overly simplistic to say that Liverpool had quality and luck at first and now claim they have neither. Eintracht have had similar experiences, and after Sunday’s 2-2 draw in Freiburg Aurèle Amenda stressed the need for greater balance. “We certainly made some mistakes, which we’ll analyse, but we also did a lot of good things,” he told EintrachtTV.

The first two matchdays of the league phase have been similarly balanced. If Atlético de Madrid, Frankfurt, Galatasaray and Liverpool – who have all faced each other – were in a group of their own, they would be in lockstep. Eintracht beat Galatasaray 5-1; Liverpool defeated Atleti 3-2; Atleti overcame Eintracht 5-1; and Galatasaray edged Liverpool 1-0. All of which underlines the competition’s status as a meeting of the continent’s very best teams.

The only previous encounters between Eintracht and Liverpool came back in the UEFA Cup first round in 1972, when the Reds won 2-0 at home and drew 0-0 away to advance to the next round.

Bundesliga influence

There are plenty of familiar names in the English side’s current squad. Wataru Endo, Ibrahima Konaté, Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexander Isak all previously laced their boots in Germany’s top flight, while Hugo Ekitiké moved to Liverpool from Eintracht over the summer.

‘Nnamdi van Dijk’

One player set to meet a childhood hero is Nnamdi Collins, who rose through the youth ranks at Fortuna Düsseldorf before joining Borussia Dortmund in 2016. It was there that U17 coach Sebastian Geppert dubbed the now 21-year-old as ‘Nnamdi van Dijk’.

“You have to have unbelievable respect for players like that and he’s definitely a huge role model for me,” said Collins of the Liverpool veteran at the end of May. “He’s unbelievable, and he’s not the kind of player you see very often in modern football. You can learn a lot from him just by watching how he plays on TV.”

The time for video analysis is over following Tuesday morning’s session; now Collins and his team-mates must take control of their fate as they go toe-to-toe with Van Dijk and Co. in person.