Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Hamburger SV preview: Riera's European dream clashes Polzin's survival bid | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt will hope to maintain their narrow advantage over Freiburg with a home win over HSV. The visitors have a chance to secure their league status this weekend as they currently have a five-point advantage over neighbours St. Pauli with three games to go.

Eintracht Frankfurt

After dropping to eighth for one week, Albert Riera's team regained their spot on matchday 30. Although the 1-1 draw in Augsburg left them with a single win in five games, Freiburg's heavy loss in Dortmund the following day leveled the two teams in the standings.

Strangely, both teams have negative goal differences even though they are fighting for the last European spot. Riera's men are hoping for a first home win since a narrow victory over bottom-placed Heidenheim in mid-March.

Team News

Reports emerged this week that Riera and Jonathan Burkardt aren't getting along in their first few months of working together. The star striker was only a late substitute last week after starting the last four games. Ritsu Doan will be suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in that Augsburg draw.

HSV

Merlin Polzin will most likely continue with Hamburg for next season after guiding the club to Bundesliga promotion before his maiden top-flight campaign. HSV only needed a few more points to secure survival provided the bottom three teams would continue dropping points in the last few weeks of the season.

However, recent results haven't been impressive as they have only won once from their last ten games. Last week's defeat to Hoffenheim saw them lose three games in the row for the first time in that timeframe. The newly-promoted side will end the season with more games against European hopefuls as they host Freiburg before their trip to Leverkusen.

Team News

Philip Otele is still suspended for the visitors, while Luka Vušković is yet to return to full fitness from an injury that kept him out from the last three games.

Head-to-Head

Eintracht Frankfurt are unbeaten in this fixture since Mladen Petric's goal secured a narrow win for HSV in 2011. The 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture extended this run to 13 games. Central midfielders Albert Sambi Lokongo and Hugo Larsson scored the goals inside the first 25 minutes of the game at Volksparkstadion.

Predicted Lineups

Eintracht: Zetterer; Kristensen, Koch ©, Amenda, Brown; Larsson; Knauff, Uzun, Höjlund, Chaibi; Kalimuendo

HSV: Heuer Fernandes; Capaldo ©, Torunarigha, Omari; Jatta, Lokonga, Remberg, Mikelbrencis; Fabio Vieira; Glatzel, Königsdörffer