Taking on one of Spain’s form teams

In partnership with

Eintracht Frankfurt

·7 March 2022

Taking on one of Spain’s form teams

Eintracht Frankfurt travel to Real Betis in the Europa League last 16 first leg on Wednesday. The size of the Eagles’ task is clear, as is the need to give themselves a solid foundation for the second leg.

Real Betis certainly have the wind in their sails at the moment – they sit fifth in the Spanish league, having qualified for the final of the Copa del Rey last Thursday, and are now looking to make it through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League for the first time ever.

OneFootball Videos

Eintracht know that they will have their work cut out against a team who are currently enjoying some of their best form since their foundation back in 1907. Even a 3-1 defeat to Atlético Madrid on Sunday evening does not seem to have put a damper on the Andalusian club’s confidence.

Solid passing, flexible options

Nevertheless, the team in green and white had a tougher time of things than Eintracht when it came to reaching the round of 16 of the Europa League. They finished second in Group G to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, which put them into the play-offs, where they managed to beat FC Zenit 3-2 on aggregate.

They currently have four wins, two draws and two defeats to their name in this season’s competition, and those eight matches have also featured plenty of goals. Betis themselves have scored 1.88 goals per game, but they have also shipped 1.75 at their own end. Eintracht, by way of comparison, have scored 1.65 goals per match in Europe this season while conceding exactly a goal a game.

3,000 Eintracht fans heading to Seville

The Eintracht squad were given a first impression of their opponents on Monday, with head coach Oliver Glasner saying: “They’re [fifth] in the league and have made it through to the cup final. We’ll prepare as best we can for the match but we need to go the extra mile if we’re going to come away from here with a result.”

Up to 60,000 fans could be in attendance at the Estadio Benito Villamarín on Wednesday, with 3,000 Eintracht supporters making the journey to the south of Spain.