BERLIN: Despite their best Bundesliga season in decades, Eintracht Frankfurt know only something close to a perfect performance will help topple league leaders Bayern Munich on Sunday.
With 22 of 34 games played this Bundesliga campaign, Frankfurt sit third and are on track for their first top-four finish since the 1992-93 season.
Frankfurt’s 2022 Europa League win meant a first-ever Champions League participation.
Another crack at the European elite from finishing in the top four this season would be a just reward for Dino Toppmoeller’s impressive side, who have rebounded despite the loss of Omar Marmoush to Manchester City.
Up next is a trip to Bayern, who are eight points clear of second-placed Bayer Leverkusen and on track to win back the Bundesliga title.
Frankfurt will be the underdogs on Sunday but have recent form against the German giants.
Frankfurt held Bayern to a 3-3 draw in October, making them one of only four teams alongside Leverkusen, Mainz and Borussia Dortmund who have taken points off the league leaders this season.
Bayern may have won only one of their past four against Frankfurt, but Eagles captain Kevin Trapp was not getting ahead of himself on Thursday.
“We are third and Bayern are 13 points ahead of us, that speaks volumes.
Trapp said the visitors “must get close to perfection in order to get a point or better there.”
Bayern may be sailing in the league but they come into Sunday’s game after two straight draws and Trapp said the hosts will fight hard “so that a crisis isn’t declared in Munich.”
Bayern look set to be without star striker Harry Kane, who was subbed off at half-time in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Celtic.
Frankfurt have their own injury woes, with German defender Robin Koch out and midfielder Mario Goetze in doubt with illness.
Toppmoeller said Friday his side needs “a good plan, a top performance and a bit of luck,” along with cool heads, with the coach calling on his charges to exhibit “a high tolerance for frustration.”
Elsewhere, Leverkusen travel to last-placed Holstein Kiel hoping to keep their slim hopes of defending their title alive.
Coach Xabi Alonso he knew the odds of overtaking Bayern, who they will meet in the Champions League last 16 after Friday’s draw, were slim, but stranger things had happened in football.
“We’re not looking so far (into the future)... Everything can happen. There are still many games. There’s time for anything.”
After establishing himself alongside striker Serhou Guirassy as Dortmund’s attacking threats early this season, English winger Jamie Gittens has hit a lull in form.
The 20-year-old has not scored for nine games dating back to mid-January.
Dortmund coach Niko Kovac urged patience with the young winger, telling reporters “Jamie has developed really well, he’s playing intensively and we need to find a balance.
“I’m very happy with Jamie, but you understand there can also be a bit of a dip now and again.”
Joshua Kimmich has played every minute of Bayern Munich’s 22 league games this season — a total of 1,980 minutes plus stoppage time in each match — the only player from the league leaders to do so.
Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike has 12 goals in 21 league games this season.
Borussia Dortmund have faced Union Berlin 13 times in all competitions but have never had a draw, winning nine and losing four.
Buoyant Frankfurt aim for ‘perfection’ against league leaders Bayern
https://arab.news/jc58p
Buoyant Frankfurt aim for ‘perfection’ against league leaders Bayern
- With 22 of 34 games played this Bundesliga campaign, Frankfurt sit third and are on track for their first top-four finish since the 1992-93 season
- Another crack at the European elite from finishing in the top four this season would be a just reward for Dino Toppmoeller’s impressive side
Pakistan-born Australian Khawaja, set to retire from cricket, criticizes racial stereotypes
- Usman Khawaja said he felt he was treated ‘a little bit different, even to now,’ because of his Pakistan and Muslim background
- Khawaja was criticized in the days leading up to the Perth match for golfing twice, not taking part in an optional training session
Veteran Australia batter Usman Khawaja has announced he will retire from international cricket after the fifth Ashes test beginning Sunday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
He didn’t go quietly.
The Pakistan-born Khawaja, who was the first Muslim to play for Australia, used his retirement announcement Friday to criticize the “racial” stereotyping he experienced during his career.
It will be the 39-year-old Khawaja’s 88th and final test — played at the ground where he began his first-class career. Khawaja scored his first Ashes century at the SCG with 171 against England in 2018.
It was also at that the SCG where he revived his career at age 35, scoring two centuries against England. That prompted one of the great late-career revivals, as Khawaja hit seven centuries in his next two years back in the side.
But Khawaja’s position had come under scrutiny and criticism this season after being unable to open in the first Ashes test in Perth due to back spasms and then missing the Brisbane test with the injury.
He was then initially left out in Adelaide until Steve Smith’s vertigo allowed Khawaja to return, before an 82 in the first innings there ensured he would stay in the side for the fourth test in Melbourne. Australia, with a 3-1 lead going into the fifth test, has retained the Ashes.
Khawaja said he felt he was treated “a little bit different, even to now,” because of his Pakistan and Muslim background.
“Different in the way I’ve been treated, different in how things have happened,” he said at a media conference in Sydney. “I had back spasms, it was something I couldn’t control. The way the media and the past players came out and attacked me . . . I copped it for about five days straight. Everyone was piling in.
“Once the racial stereotypes came in, of me being lazy, it was things I’ve dealt with my whole life. Pakistani, West Indian, colored players...we’re selfish, we only care about ourselves, we don’t care about the team, we don’t train hard enough.”
Khawaja was criticized in the days leading up to the Perth match for golfing twice and not taking part in an optional training session. Some commentators suggested the golf might have been responsible for his back issues.
“I can give you countless number of guys who have played golf the day before a match and have been injured, but you guys haven’t said a thing,” Khawaja told the assembled media.
“I can give you even more examples of guys who have had 15 schooners (large glasses of beer) the night before a game and have then been injured, but no one said a word because they were just being ‘Aussie larrikins,’ they were just being lads. But when I get injured, everyone went at my credibility and who I am as a person.”
Khawaja said he knew the end of his career was imminent.
“I guess moving into this series, I had an inkling this would be the last series,” he said. “I’m glad I can go out on my own terms.”
Khawaja has scored 6,206 runs at an average of 43.49 in his 87 tests with 16 centuries and 28 half-centuries.
“Usman has made a huge contribution to Australian cricket both through his outstanding achievements as one of our most stylish and resilient batters . . . and off field, particularly through the Usman Khawaja Foundation,” Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said in a statement.
“Usman has been one of Australia’s most reliable opening batters and testament to his success was him being named ICC test cricketer of the year the same season that Australia won the World Test Championship (in 2023).”
Khawaja said his No. 1 emotion on announcing his retirement was “contentment.”
“I’m very lucky to have played so many games for Australia the way I have,” Khawaja said. “I hope I have inspired people along the way.”
