Monday Football Tips: Eintracht to show their class

FC Magdeburg v Eintracht Frankfurt
Monday 1 August, 19:46
Live on Premier Sports 1

Several Bundesliga sides handed out a spanking in the first round of the German cup, the DFB Pokal, over the weekend and Eintracht may well help themselves to a few goals here.

OK, Magdeburg aren't down in the lower divisions but it should be remembered it's only a few months since they were in 3. Liga.

The early weeks of this season have shown the area they could struggle in, namely defence.

Both league games so far have seen them concede twice, losing at 2-1 home to Dusseldorf before claiming a 3-2 win on the road at Karlsruher.

They conceded 42 shots across those two matches and while I'm not too keen on giving great weight to pre-season results, it is worth noting that when they did face Bundesliga opposition, they conceded four times to Union Berlin.

Eintracht are yet to start their league campaign but pre-season has gone well with a 3-1 win over Italian side Torino followed last weekend by a 5-0 hammering of minnows Astoria Walldorf.

Attacking midfielder Jesper Lindstrom netted in both of those games and should get forward to trouble the hosts' shaky defence in this one.

I'm happy to stick Lindstrom to score in a Bet Builder along with Eintracht to cover a one-goal handicap. It's a bet which pays just over 4/1.

The Europa League winners' sporting director Markus Krosche spoke the other day about how this was an "extremely important" game with Eintracht keen to avoid an early exit from the competition, as occurred last season.

Victory would also lead nicely into the new Bundesliga campaign which starts with them hosting champions Bayern Munich on Friday, while the following midweek they face Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.

The potential for early defeats is clear and they won't want a bad run to start here so expect a fully focused, professional display.

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