By Rich Murray
Eintracht Frankfurt shut out host Hamburg on Friday with an impressive 3:0 win. This was new trainer Markus Gisdol’s first home game, but his club’s efforts to hold their opponents back could not withstand Eintracht’s fury, buoyed by the latter’s draw the prior week against Bayern. Eintracht Frankfurt attacker Marco Fabian provided two assists, with the goals coming from Lewis Holtby on his own net, Shani Tarashaj, and Haris Seferovic, and the win moved Frankfurt into fourth place in the table going into Saturday’s matches. Saturday’s headline match will occur between Bayern and Gladbach, and will feature Valerien Ismael’s first contest as Wolfsburg’s head coach. Gladbach has not lost their past four matches with Bayern, and coach Andre Schubert oversaw a 3:1 home win and a 1:1 draw in Munich last season. Bayern will fight to keep their position at the top of the table, which they may temporarily lose, depending on the outcome of the Cologne-Hertha game. Dortmund, meanwhile, may pick up an easy win against league-trailing Ingolstadt, and Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will seek to regain his position at the top of scorers’ table. Rumors also have Dortmund tracking Manchester City’s midfielder Bersant Celina, who is currently on loan to the Dutch club FC Twente. Dortmund’s Marco Reus, meanwhile, has completed his first full training since suffering a muscle injury during the DFB Pokal in May, although trainer Thomas Tuchel says it may be some time still before he can play again. There has been a change at nearby FC Schalke: sporting executive Christian Heidel is no longer requiring that his players live within a 35-kilometer radius of the Veltins Arena. Schalke’s previous sporting director, Horst Heldt, had begun adding the requirement to player’s contracts last year to prevent them from moving to Düsseldorf, which lies 60 kilometers to the north. The reason for the change? Heidel said he prefers to have “happy players”, and gave as an example the Brazilian Naldo, who settled in Düsseldorf after his transfer from Wolfsburg this past summer.
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