Basel vs Eintracht Frankfurt Europa League preview: where to watch, team news

Eintracht Frankfurt travel to Basel in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 on 6 August at 21:00 CET. This page will update with team news, quotes and expert analysis as kick-off approaches.

Where to watch the game on TV

Fans can find their local UEFA Europa League broadcast partner(s) here.

The teams

Basel (SUI)
UEFA ranking: 26 (6)
Domestic position: 3 (final match: 2 August)
How they got here: Group C winners, 4-0 APOEL
Last season: play-offs (lost on away goals v Apollon Limassol after 3-3 draw)
Previous UEFA Cup/Europa League best: semi-finals (2012/13)

Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)
UEFA ranking: 48 (10)
Domestic position: 9 (final match: 27 June)
How they got here: Group F runners-up
Last season: semi-finals (lost 4-3 on pens v Chelsea after 2-2 draw, aet)
Previous UEFA Cup/Europa League best: winners (1979/80)

Possible line-ups

Basel: Nikolić; Widmer, Cömert, Alderete, Riveros; Xhaka, Frei; Stocker, Campo, Ademi; Cabral
Out: Omlin (muscular), Ramires (unspecified), Zuffi (knee)
Doubtful: Pululu (unspecified)
Misses next match if booked: Alderete, Cömert, Frei, Stocker
Players added to squad: none
Players removed from squad: Emil Bergström, Kevin Bua, Zdravko Kuzmanović, Edon Zhegrova

Frankfurt: Trapp; N'Dicka, Abraham, Hinteregger; Da Costa, Hasebe, Ilsanker, Kostić; Kamada, Silva, Dost
Out: Sow (suspended)
Misses next match if booked: Abraham, Kamada
Players added to squad: none
Players removed from squad: Sahverdi Cetin, Patrick Finger, Max Hinke, Marco Russ

Reporter's view

Despite a 3-0 deficit from the first leg in Germany, Eintracht coach Adi Hütter wants to "make the impossible possible" against Basel on Thursday; that may be easier said than done against a side boasting four straight European clean sheets. Even so, if anyone knows how to get the better of the Rotblau it is Hütter, whose Young Boys side ended Basel’s eight-season grip on the Swiss title in 2017/18.
Daniel Thacker

What the coaches say

Marcel Koller, Basel coach: "We have to defend well, that is clear. Eintracht had a test against Monaco at the weekend. I was amazed at how well they played. They will try everything tomorrow and will certainly want to take the lead early. I expect them to take risks."

Frankfurt coach Adi Hütter removes his maskAFP

Adi Hütter, Frankfurt coach: "Our path is clear: we hope we can overturn the first-leg result. We screwed it up at home, that's for sure. Basel were the smarter team that day. Nevertheless, we still have the chance to turn the game around. And we want to do that."

Previous meetings

• Basel made it two 3-0 away wins in successive rounds with their comprehensive first-leg win in Frankfurt, Samuele Campo's first European goal – a superb left-footed free-kick – opening the scoring on 27 minutes before Kevin Bua (who has since left the club) and Fabian Frei added precise finishes in the second period.

• Although Basel and Frankfurt had never previously met in a UEFA match, select XIs from their respective cities did face each other in the group stage of the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup of 1955–58, each side posting a big home victory as Frankfurt won 5-1 in June 1956 and Basel 6-2 a year later.

• Basel have lost all four of their previous knockout ties against German opponents and managed just two wins in seven home games against German clubs, losing the other five. Their last home win was 1-0 against Bayern München in the first leg of the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League round of 16, with Valentin Stocker scoring the late winner, but it triggered a second-leg 7-0 loss in Munich that remains the Swiss club's heaviest European defeat.

• Eintracht have won three of their four UEFA two-legged ties against Swiss clubs and their record in Switzerland is W2 D1 L1, although they have failed to score on their last two visits, both against Grasshoppers in Zurich.

Form guide

Basel
• Having won the Swiss Super League eight seasons running from 2009/10 to 2016/17, Basel finished second to Young Boys in each of the next two campaigns. In 2018/19 they were eliminated from both the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League in the qualifying phase.

• This season they again missed out on the UEFA Champions League proper, an away-goals success against PSV Eindhoven in the second qualifying round preceding a 5-2 aggregate defeat by LASK. That meant a transfer to the UEFA Europa League group stage, where they opened with a 5-0 home win against Krasnodar, then drew 2-2 at Trabzonspor before beating Getafe 1-0 in Spain and 2-1 in Switzerland to ensure an early qualification.

• Basel's victory against APOEL took them into the UEFA Europa League round of 16 for the fourth time. They have won two and lost one of the previous three ties, beating Zenit (2-0 h, 0-1 a) in 2012/13, when they went on to reach the semi-finals, and Salzburg in 2013/14 (0-0 h, 2-1 a), but losing to eventual winners Sevilla (0-0 h, 0-3 a) in 2015/16.

• Basel's overall record in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase at the St. Jakob-Park is W6 D3 L2. With wins in all three home group games this term, plus the 1-0 success against APOEL, their unbeaten home run in the UEFA Europa League, qualifying included, has now stretched to nine matches (W7 D2)

• Basel have won 12 of the 13 UEFA ties in which they were triumphant on the road in the first leg, the most recent in this season's round of 32 against APOEL – the only previous occasion when they have triumphed 3-0. The sole aggregate defeat came against German opposition, however, Hamburg overcoming them on away goals in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup third round (1-0 a, 2-3 h).

Eintracht
• Frankfurt's 14-match UEFA Europa League adventure in 2018/19 brought memorable knockout phase wins over three teams that had crossed over in mid-season from the UEFA Champions League – Shakhtar Donetsk, Internazionale and Benfica – before they were beaten on penalties in the semi-final by eventual winners Chelsea. That European run was accompanied by a seventh-placed finish in the Bundesliga.

• The 1980 UEFA Cup winners embarked on this UEFA Europa League campaign in the second qualifying round, beating Flora Tallinn, Vaduz and Strasbourg to reach the group stage for the third time. Defeated 3-0 at home by Arsenal on Matchday 1, they recovered to beat Vitória SC away and Standard Liège in Frankfurt, but after posting a famous 2-1 win in north London, they lost at home to Vitória and only just squeezed through as Group F runners-up on nine points – half as many as they amassed last season.

• The win against Salzburg – another opponent that dropped into the competition from the UEFA Champions League – returned Frankfurt to the round of 16, where they overcame Inter last season (0-0 h, 1-0 a) in their only previous tie at this stage of the competition.

• Eintracht's away record in the UEFA Europa League is W11 D4 L4, including two wins, one draw and one defeat in this season's competition. They have lost just once outside Germany in the competition's knockout phase (W1 D4), going down 4-2 at Benfica in last season's quarter-final first leg.

• Eintracht have only once previously lost the first home leg in a UEFA tie, going out to Dynamo Kyiv in the 1974/75 European Cup Winners' Cup second round (2-3 h, 1-2 a).

Links & trivia

• Frankfurt coach Adi Hütter won the Swiss title with Young Boys in 2017/18, the last of his three seasons in Berne, having finished runners-up to Basel in each of the first two. His record in 12 Super League games against Basel was W4 D3 L5.

• Eintracht captain David Abraham is a former Basel player, winning three domestic league titles and two Swiss Cups with the club from 2008–12. His former Basel team-mates include current squad members Stocker, Frei and Taulant Xhaka.

• Frankfurt’s Swiss international midfielder Djibril Sow won successive Swiss Super Leagues with Young Boys in 2017/18 and 2018/19.

• Basel defender Eray Cömert made his Switzerland debut in their final UEFA EURO 2020 qualifier against Gibraltar alongside Sow, while Basel trio Stocker, Frei and Luca Zuffi are all long-standing Swiss internationals.

• Stocker (Hertha Berlin 2014–18) and Frei (Mainz 2015–18) have both played in Germany, as has their Basel colleague Kemal Ademi (Hoffenheim II 2015–18).

• Frankfurt's Martin Hinteregger and Stefan Ilsanker were both given their international debuts for Austria by Basel coach Marcel Koller and went on to play under him at UEFA EURO 2016.

• Japanese midfielder Daichi Kamada, who scored a hat-trick in Eintracht's round of 32 first-leg win against Salzburg, remains the joint leading scorer in this season's UEFA Europa League, group stage to final, with six goals.

• Eintracht's first-leg victory against Salzburg was their 18th in the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final, setting a new record for a German club. They were previously level on 17 wins with Schalke.

• Eintracht concluded the 2019/20 Bundesliga campaign in ninth place, thus failing to qualify for Europe. They also reached the DFB-Pokal semi-finals, where they lost 2-1 to eventual winners Bayern München.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Basel's record in one UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L0:
4-1 v Tottenham Hotspur, 2012/13 UEFA Europa League quarter-final

• Eintracht's record in two UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W0 L2:
4-5 v Salzburg, 1993/94 UEFA Cup quarter-final
3-4 v Chelsea, 2018/19 UEFA Europa League semi-final