Sports Blog 23/05/2016: Bundesliga Relegation Play-Off 2nd Leg Preview – FC Nurnberg vs Eintracht Frankfurt, Monday 23rd May 2016

With an away goal advantage after the 1st leg can FC Nurnberg make the jump to the Bungesliga on Monday night, or will Eintracht Frankfurt hold onto their spot for another season?

Given the sheer gulf between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund at the top, and everyone else in the league below them, pretty much any team from 8th or 9th place onwards could have feasibly found themselves in the relegation zone. Yet it fell to Eintracht Frankfurt to finish in 16th place, 3 and 11 points above Stuttgart and Hannover respectively, and only 1 and 2 points below the likes of Hoffenheim, Darmstadt, Werder Bremen and Augsburg.



It was in attack that Frankfurt fell down this season, failing to score in 15 of their 34 Bundesliga games. In fact they had the 3rd worst strike rate in the entire league and likely would have come bottom of that particular metric if it wasn’t for club legend Alexander Meier, who scored more than a third of their 34 goals.

Down in 2. Bundesliga Nurnberg were incredibly unlucky not to nab one of the automatic promotion spots. Whilst they were 7 points adrift from second-tier champions Freiburg, on 65 points Nurnberg were only 2 a way from Leipzig. Just one more win would have sent them through, something that seemed more than achievable for most of the season. After a spotty start Nurnberg went unbeaten for 18 games between mid-October and the start of April, winning 12 and drawing 6. Yet a late in the season slip in form, with 3 losses in their final 6 games, saw them cede 2nd place to Leipzig, forcing the side into the relegation play-offs in the process.

The 1st leg in Frankfurt ended in stalemate with Mijat Gacinovic’s 65th minute strike drawing the sides level after Marco Russ’ first half own goal had given Nurnberg the lead. Crucially that gives the promotion-seeking side an important away goal, and arguably puts them in the driving seat ahead of the 2nd leg at the Grundig Stadion.

From our traders perspective, however, it is just too close to call, with Spreadex offering a choice Nurnberg/Eintracht Frankfurt Goal Supremacy spread of -0.1-0.1 with a Total Goals spread of 2.35-2.55.

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