Preview: Augsburg the next hurdle | OneFootball

With five matches left in the league, Eintracht’s focus is always on the next one. On Easter Sunday they face one of the best teams in the second half of the season.

The backdrop

The Eagles are third in the Bundesliga with 51 points going into the final five matchdays. “We’ve put ourselves in a very good position in the Bundesliga and won three of the last four matches,” said head coach Dino Toppmöller on Friday. “We’ve travelling to Augsburg with this confidence. It’s going to be an exciting contest, we know how important this match is.”

Augsburg currently occupy tenth place with 42 points, but their form in the second half of the campaign has been among the best in Germany’s top flight. With 23 points from the last 12 games, Augsburg are third in the table since the halfway point of the season, with only Bayern and Leverkusen surpassing them.

“We know Augsburg have been on a great run – they’re a very compact side with good patterns of play in attack and robustness,” underlined Toppmöller. “They’ve been very steady in recent weeks and months, have also caused a couple of surprises along the way and only lost to Bayern. They have a good mix in the squad and a lot of quality.”

Looking back

The head-to-head record between Augsburg and Frankfurt is remarkably even, with nine draws and eight victories apiece from the 25 Bundesliga encounters to date. The points were also shared in the reverse fixture in a 2-2 draw at Deutsche Bank Park. Hugo Ekitiké, now on 14 goals in the league this season, and Can Uzun were on the scoresheet for Eintracht. Incidentally, Ekitiké netted his first Bundesliga goal against Augsburg in April almost exactly a year ago.

Solid keepers

Of the goalkeepers who have played at least 500 minutes in the German top flight this term, Kaua Santos has saved 75 percent of shots fired at him, putting him second in the league-wide ranking. Kevin Trapp is just three percentage points and three places behind him.

At the top of the pile is Augsburg’s Finn Dahmen, who recently went 683 minutes without picking the ball out of his net. He’s saved 86 percent of the opposition attempts he’s faced so far and registered eight clean sheets. In total, Augsburg have not conceded in ten matches this season, the third most in the division.