Opponents from France are favored by Eintracht Frankfurt in this pre-season.

After Racing Strasbourg (2: 3), the Hessians will meet Ligue 1 representatives AS Saint-Étienne in the final test match this Saturday (3:30 p.m.) in the World Cup arena.

The French record champions (ten titles) ended the season in eleventh place.

The new Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner made athletic acquaintance with the East French in the 2019/2020 season.

At that time still in the service of VfL Wolfsburg, the Austrian and his team had to prove themselves twice against AS Saint-Étienne in the group stage of the Europa League.

After the 1-1 draw in the first leg in France, Wolfsburg prevailed 1-0 in the second leg and finished Group 1 in second place behind KAA Gent.

The current Saint-Étienne trainer Claude Puel replaced Ghislain Printant at the time.

"More power and energy"

The Frankfurters have only played once against the Association Sportive: on July 15, 1981 in Paris at an invitation tournament.

In front of 25,000 spectators in the semifinals, Eintracht won 4-2 on penalties.

Goalkeeper Jürgen Pahl saved two penalties, the Frankfurt goal scorers were Werner Lorant, Bernd Nickel, Norbert Nachtweih - and newcomer Joachim Löw.

This Saturday, spectators are again admitted in Frankfurt for the first time in 301 days.

10,000 in number in times of the corona pandemic.

“We have all waited a long time for this moment.

I think we have even more strength and energy this weekend than in the past few weeks, ”said winger Erik Durm.

On Sunday next week, Eintracht will start the new season with their first competitive game in the first main cup round at Waldhof Mannheim.

“We played against Mannheim in the cup two years ago.

The game didn't start very well back then, but luckily we prevailed in the end.

We have definitely been warned, ”says Durm.

The 2014 world champion is going into the new season “very optimistically” with Eintracht.

“We all know that last season was an absolutely exceptional season.

Nevertheless, we now have at least an equal, if not a better team, ”he says.