Bastian Oczipka: We need to cut out mistakes and use the space

“I’m still in touch with one or two Frankfurt players but their team has changed a lot over the last couple of years,” explains Oczipka. “A lot of the guys I used to play with are no longer there.” Nevertheless, he still keeps up to date with his former club’s results and news. “I cross my fingers for Frankfurt in their Europa League games,” says Oczipka.

He also looks to see where SGE’s strengths and weaknesses are. “Eintracht are a physical side and they play with a high intensity. They also never give up. You could see that in their 2-2 draw with Hertha BSC when they came back from 2-0 down,” explains Oczipka. “We have to face this battle head on and make use of the space that Frankfurt will give us.”

Moreover, the Royal Blues will need to cut out the mistakes that denied them a positive result at the BayArena. “We’ve processed the defeat at Leverkusen. The gaps we left between in each other were too big, so we struggled to win the ball sometimes,” says Oczipka, before adding: “We want to and we will do better against Frankfurt!”