Frankfurt hope to catch jaded Bayern napping

BERLIN: Eintracht Frankfurt are hoping to be the next team to capitalise on jaded Bayern Munich’s busy schedule when the Club World Cup champions are away to the Bundesliga’s in-form side on Saturday.

Five straight league wins have rocketed Frankfurt from eighth in mid January to sit third in the Bundesliga, 10 points behind leaders Bayern.

“We are in very good spirits and Bayern have a lot of games at the moment and have to travel a lot ,” frankfurt’ s 37- year-old japanese captain mako to Hasebe told magazine Sport Bild.

“Still, they are still so good and have a strong winners’ mentality.”

For ba ye rn, the clash is part of a gruel ling schedule across multiple competitions, coming between their Club World Cup success in Qatar last week and the resumption of their Champions League title defence against Lazio on Tuesday.

The champions’ resilience was tested last monday when strugglers Arminia Bielefeld raced into a 2-0 lead in Munich.

Robert Lewandowski neted his 25th league goal in 2020/21 with a superb volley to spark Bayern’s fight-back in a 3-3 draw.

Bayern looked jaded ater the long flight back from Qatar and struggled with Thomas Mueller quarantined ater testing positive for Covid-19.

Frankfurt were thumped 5-0 by Bayern at the Allianz Arena last October.

However, Bayern were thrashed 5-1 on their last visit to Frankfurt in November 2019.

Adi Hueter’s Frankfurt are unbeaten in their first 10 home games this season - the first time that has happened since 1990/91.

Portugal striker Andre Silva is Frankfurt’s top scorer with 18 league goals.

As Frankfurt’s Germany goalkeeper Kevin Trapp put it, if Bielefeld can take a point off Bayern, “why shouldn’t we be able to do that too?”.

“We know that we can beat any opponent if we play well,” added Frankfurt winger Erik Durm, a 2014 World Cup winner with Germany.

Hasebe says Frankfurt’s goal is more than just qualifying for the Champions League next season.

“Eintracht can reach the level behind Bayern alongside clubs like Dortmund, Moenchengladbach and Leipzig,” he added.

In Saturday night’s top game Borussia Dortmund are at botom side Schalke in what could be the last Ruhr derby for the forseeable future.

With just one win all season, Schalke are heading to their first relegation in thirty years.