Preview: Eintracht Frankfurt vs. SV Darmstadt 98 - prediction, team news, lineups

The visitors are returning to Germany's top flight for the first time since being relegated in 2017, having finished as runners-up in the second tier last time out.

Match preview

Frankfurt will begin a new era under the management of Dino Toppmoller, who arrives with plenty of pedigree having worked as Julian Nagelsmann's assistant at RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich.

However, he has never worked as an outright manager at anywhere near this level of football, so he will have big shoes to fill in terms of replacing Oliver Glasner. Glasner guided Die Adler to a Europa League triumph in May 2022, before reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League and the final of the DFB-Pokal last season.

Toppmoller may sense an opportunity to guide his side to a top four finish for the first time in over 30 years, while they will certainly view the Europa Conference League as a competition that they should be competing for to potentially add to their European trophy cabinet.

Toppmoller began his reign with an expected thrashing of fourth division outfit Lokomotive Leipzig in the opening round of the DFB-Pokal on Sunday, with Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe and new signing Jessic Ngankam both bagging braces towards the end of their side's 7-0 rout.

While expecting a repeat scoreline against Darmstadt on Sunday would be hugely ambitious, the home fans in attendance at Deutsche Bank Park will walk away disappointed if they do not see their team kick-off the new campaign with all three points.

Indeed, Darmstadt would have hoped for a kinder start upon their return to the Bundesliga, having only ever survived in one of their four historical seasons competing in Germany's top flight.

That achievement came in the 2015-16 season off the back of four promotions within eight seasons all the way from the fifth tier, but since finishing rock-bottom of the Bundesliga table with only 25 points in 2016-17, they spent five years failing to return.

A fourth-placed finish in Torsten Lieberknecht's debut season in charge suggested that Die Lilien were back on the right track, before a superb unbeaten run of 21 league games in the middle of last season helped edge them above Hamburger SV into the second automatic promotion spot.

However, Lieberknecht will have been left hugely concerned by his side's 3-0 defeat to fourth division side to FC Homburg on Monday, with Darmstadt unable to turn their complete domination - illustrated by them having 27 shots, 82% possession and 18 corners - into any meaningful foothold during their shock DFB-Pokal defeat.

The only consolation is that they can now solely focus on keeping themselves outside of the relegation zone come next May, but Lieberknecht and his players will be fully aware that they are massively up against it from the outset in this regard.

Eintracht Frankfurt Bundesliga form:

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Eintracht Frankfurt form (all competitions):

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SV Darmstadt 98 Bundesliga form:

SV Darmstadt 98 form (all competitions):

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Team News

Frankfurt will be without youngster Mehdi Loune until February due to an ACL injury, while Lucas Alario is expected to miss the rest of the month with his own knee issue.

With a week between their 7-0 victory in the domestic cup and this league game, Toppmoller may see no reason to make any changes to his starting XI, meaning Ellyes Skhiri should make his league debut for the club after joining on a free transfer from FC Koln.

Darmstadt, meanwhile, are likely to travel without Matthias Bader due to a thigh injury, meaning Fabian Nurnberger may have to continue to deputise right wing-back.

Christoph Klarer and Fraser Hornby both made their competitive debuts during their side's surprising 3-0 defeat in the domestic cup on Monday, and they will hope to hold onto their starting berths despite the nature of the loss.

Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:

Trapp; Koch, Hasebe, Pacho; Buta, Ebimbe, Skhiri, Max; Lindstrom, Gotze; Kolo Muani

SV Darmstadt 98 possible starting lineup:

Schuhen; Klarer, Zimmermann, Riedel; Nurnberger, Mehlem, Holland, Karic; Manu, Honsak; Hornby

We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 SV Darmstadt 98

It is incredibly tough to envisage the visitors gaining anything here, particularly with their confidence likely to be dented by their shock 3-0 defeat to fourth division opponents in the DFB-Pokal first round.

Frankfurt displayed their attacking fluency with a 7-0 demolition against a side at the same level as Darmstadt's opponents, and we expect them to begin the season with a comfortable victory.

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