Preview: Eagles at the Alte Försterei | OneFootball

At the end of a full week of training, Eintracht travel to the capital’s Köpenick district for Albert Riera’s first match against Union Berlin. Both teams will be battling for a much-needed win.

Backdrop

After seven matches in the space of 22 days, the start of February has offered the Eagles a full, if short, week of training. On Monday morning, head coach Albert Riera started his work in Frankfurt and on Friday, his team and hosts 1. FC Union Berlin open Matchday 21 of the Bundesliga (20:30 CET). “You can’t win without fighting,” declared Riera ahead of his debut for Eintracht. “It’s about Eintracht Frankfurt and achieving our goals,” added board member for sport Markus Krösche. “We have plenty of games left to do that. The boys need to believe in themselves and we as a team need to believe in ourselves.”

Eintracht are in eighth place with 27 points, with Union three points behind them in ninth. Unless the meeting ends in a draw – which has only happened three times in the German top flight – one run will definitely end. While the hosts have failed to win their first five Bundesliga games of a calendar year for the first time in their history, the Eagles are without a win since the victory at home to Augsburg on 13 December. “We as players have to look each other in the eye and simply produce a different performance against Union,” commented Aurèle Amenda. 

Third Spaniard

That’s the aim for the first match under Riera. The Majorcan becomes only the third Spanish coach in the history of the Bundesliga, after Pep Guardiola and Xabi Alonso.

Score to settle with Baumgart 

Riera’s opposite number Steffen Baumgart has faced Frankfurt nine times as a coach with three different clubs – Paderborn, Köln and now Union – and only lost once: a 3-2 defeat with Paderborn on the final day of the 2019/20 campaign. Time for the Eagles to polish up that record.