Preview: Back among the elite | OneFootball

Champions League football returns to Frankfurt after a 940-day absence as the Eagles host Galatasaray.

Eintracht begin their UEFA Champions League campaign on Thursday evening at home to Galatasaray A.Ş. (kick-off 21:00 CEST). The teams last met in 1992, when the 25-time record Turkish champions went through 1-0 on aggregate after a two-legged tie in the second round of the UEFA Cup.

The backdrop

Eintracht have enjoyed a decent start to the new Bundesliga season with two wins and a defeat, while they also beat FV Engers 5-0 in the first round of the DFB Cup.

Nürnberg old boys

Galatasaray won each of their first five Süper Lig assignments but that did not stop them signing former Manchester City captain and Germany international Ilkay Gündogan at the start of September.

Incidentally, Gündogan took his first steps in professional football in Bundesliga 2 at 1. FC Nürnberg – just like Can Uzun.

Recent European record

Like Eintracht, Galatasaray are making their Champions League return this term. The Turkish giants were eliminated in the qualifying rounds of the competition last season and exited at the group stage in 2023/24 – after which they failed to progress beyond the play-offs in the Europa League.

Last continental successes

Eintracht won the Europa League in 2022 to claim continental honours for a second time. Galatasaray, meanwhile, are the only Turkish club ever to pick up European silverware, doing so a quarter of a century ago when they beat Arsenal on penalties to lift the UEFA Cup in 2000.

Personnel

Both teams have question marks surrounding key attackers. Mario Götze was unavailable for Friday’s Bundesliga trip to the BayArena, while Galatasaray forward Victor Osimhen returned from international duty with Nigeria with an injury.

Osimhen has scored three goals in his last two meetings with Eintracht, helping SSC Napoli to two victories (2-0 and 3-0) in the 2022/23 Champions League round of 16.

As such, the Eagles’ last home game in the competition was 940 days ago. Of the players that started that day, only Aurélio Buta and Götze remain at the club. The long wait is almost over – come on Eintracht!