Victory against Eintracht Frankfurt is urgently needed for VfL Bochum. The statistics and the pre-season give the Bundesliga bottom team hope.

On Saturday (8 October, 3.30 pm), VfL Bochum welcomes Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt to Castroper Straße. The aim is to finally achieve the first win of the Bundesliga season against the Hessians on matchday 9. In the top flight as well as in Bochum, the record speaks in favour of the home side.

However, Eintracht showed good form in the first weeks of the season. In the Champions League, they recently drew 0-0 with Harry Kane and Tottenham, and in the league, the Eagles have stormed to sixth place with the third-best attack and have not lost in four competitive matches. So the visitors come to Bochum with a broad chest, where they desperately need a three-pointer for confidence.

Castroper Straße against Eintracht a fortress

This is the 70th time that VfL and Eintracht have faced each other in a competitive match. The Bochum side have narrowly lost out with 25 wins to 29 (15 draws). Especially in the DFB Cup, there have been bitter meetings, with Frankfurt knocking VfL out of the competition three times in three encounters.

In the Bundesliga, things look better for VfL fans. With 24 victories, the Bochum team has won one more than Eintracht. And especially at Castroper Straße, it was a tough place for the Hessians: Frankfurt could only celebrate five wins here – with 20 home victories for VfL.

In the previous season, it was also VfL Bochum versus Eintracht Frankfurt on matchday 9 – with the better end for the hosts: Danny Blum had already scored the 1:0 in the third minute, and it was only in injury time that Sebastian Polter ensured the 2:0 final score. The second leg, and thus the last duel, was decided in favour of the Eagles. Polter’s opening goal (19th) was cancelled out by an own goal from Erhan Masovic, Daichi Kamada scored to make it 2-1.