Liverpool’s return to Champions League action on Wednesday sees them take on Eintracht Frankfurt, a rather unique opponent for the Reds. The two sides have only previously met in the early stages of the 1972-73 UEFA Cup, with the Reds shading that meeting 2-0 over two legs.
For Eintracht manager Dino Toppmoller, though, not everything about Liverpool will be new as he’s previously coached four key Reds. The most recent is Hugo Ekitike, who he managed in Germany last season. In his days as an assistant
at Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig, though, he also coached Dominik Szoboszlai, Ibrahima Konaté, and Ryan Gravenberch.
“There are several I trained,” Toppmoller said ahead of the match when asked about his familiarity with the current Liverpool squad. “Szoboszlai, Konate, and also for sure Ekitike—Gravenberch at Bayern as well. But for sure, with Ekitike he was my player for one and a half years and my main striker.
“So it’s very nice to see how he fits perfectly in the squad of Liverpool. He has already scored his goals, and he already has a big impact on the game for them, and I expect him to start tomorrow. We are looking forward to seeing him but hopefully at the end of the game we will be the winners.”
Liverpool have now dropped four in a row, losing their last three Premier League matches and beaten at Anfield by Atletico Madrid in their last Champions League match. Frankfurt’s last four have only gone slightly better, with a draw with Freiburg, loss to Bayern Munich, and win over Monchengladbach in the league plus their own loss to Atletico in Europe.
On paper, though, Liverpool are the stronger side and have to be counted as favourites despite their well documented recent struggles, while Toppmoller insists his side’s next opponents’ performances have perhaps been better of late than that poor string of results would suggest.
“They were the better team in many recent games and they had bigger chances to score over the weekend,” he noted. “They were very unlucky. [Cody] Gakpo I think hit the post three times. So, I mean, we know the quality of this team, but we also know that there are some possibilities also for us to be dangerous.
“So we want to take the energy from the stadium tomorrow, here in front of our supporters. It’s not so easy for any opponent to play here. So yeah, we’re looking forward to facing the champions of England.”
