There is nothing significant on the line as the two qualified teams from UEFA Europa League Group H meet on matchday six in Rome, though section winners Eintracht Frankfurt will be keen to make it six wins out of six as they take on a Lazio side who are through as runners-up despite trailing their visitors by six points.
• Eintracht’s first European campaign in five years has been flawless so far, an opening 2-1 win at last season’s runners-up Marseille triggering a run of five successive victories that have brought 15 goals – the joint-highest tally in the competition alongside Salzburg (Group B) and Sevilla (J).
• Like Frankfurt, Lazio have defeated Marseille home and away, sealing their qualification in advance of a 2-0 defeat at Apollon Limassol – whom they had beaten 2-1 at home – on matchday five.
Previous meetings
• The clubs’ first UEFA competition encounter, on matchday two, went the way of Eintracht, who ran out 4-1 winners in a game that Lazio completed with only nine men. Defender Danny da Costa scored the first and last of the home side’s goals.
• Lazio have an excellent record against German clubs in Rome, winning five of the six matches and drawing the other. They eliminated successive Bundesliga opponents in Borussia Mönchengladbach and Stuttgart en route to the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals thanks to decisive second-leg wins at the Stadio Olimpico (2-0 and 3-1 respectively).
• Eintracht’s two previous visits to Italy came in the same season, 1994/95, when they won 1-0 at Napoli in the third round of the UEFA Cup (and 2-0 on aggregate) but lost 0-3 at Juventus (1-4 agg) in the quarter-finals.
Form guide
Lazio
• Edged out of fourth place and into fifth in last season’s Serie A by Internazionale on the final day, Lazio are participating in the UEFA Europa League for the seventh time, their best performances having been in 2012/13 and 2017/18, when they reached the quarter-finals.
• The Rome side have played more games in the competition than any other Italian club, this being their 62nd – and 42nd in the group stage. Including this season, their last six UEFA Europa League group stage participations have all been successful – after failure in the first – and they have topped their section on three occasions.
• Runners-up to Inter in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, Lazio were undefeated at home in Europe last season (W4 D2) and have won 11 of their last 14 continental fixtures in Rome (D2 L1). They are unbeaten in their last 17 UEFA Europa League group games at the Stadio Olimpico (W13 D4), winning seven of the last eight.
Eintracht
• A dramatic 2017/18 German Cup final victory over Bundesliga champions Bayern München – 3-1 in Berlin – not only gave Eintracht their first major silverware in 30 years but also secured their first European campaign in five.
• Eintracht’s only European participation in the past dozen seasons came in 2013/14, when they successfully negotiated the UEFA Europa League play-offs and group stage, topping their section with 15 points, before going out on away goals to Porto in the round of 32.
• The 1980 UEFA Cup winners won three of their five away fixtures in that 2013/14 campaign and have lost just one of their last ten European games on the road (W5 D4). Their overall record in the UEFA Europa League, home and away and including qualifying, is W12 D2 L1, the sole defeat coming at Maccabi Tel-Aviv (2-4) five years ago.
Links and trivia
• Milan Badelj (Lazio) and Ante Rebić (Eintracht) were members of the Croatia squad that finished runners-up at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Badelj has played in Germany with Hamburg, his two games against Eintracht bringing two defeats and two draws, while Rebić has played in Italy with Verona and Fiorentina.
• Lazio’s Sergej Milinković-Savić and Dušan Basta have both played alongside Eintracht’s Filip Kostić for Serbia, while Riza Durmisi (Lazio) and Frederik Rønnow (Eintracht) are fellow Danish internationals.
• Lazio jointly hold the record for the most draws in the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final. They and Dynamo Kyiv have both shared the spoils on 18 occasions.
• Eintracht are one of three clubs with maximum points from the opening five UEFA Europa League fixtures, the others being Salzburg (Group B) and Chelsea (L).
• Eintracht’s Serbian international striker Luka Jović scored twice in the 4-0 home win against Marseille on matchday five to join Salzburg’s Munas Dabbur as the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League’s joint top scorer with five goals.
The coaches
• Lazio boss since April 2016, when he replaced Stefano Pioli, Simone Inzaghi represented the club as a forward between 1999 and 2010, winning the Italian double in his debut season and the Coppa Italia twice more in later years. The younger brother of fellow ex-Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, with whom he played at home-town outfit Piacenza, he began coaching Lazio’s youth teams immediately after hanging up his boots. His first trophy as coach was the 2017 Italian Super Cup.
• Austrian coach Adi Hütter was appointed by Eintracht Frankfurt as the successor to Bayern München-bound Niko Kovač in May 2018, having just led Young Boys to their first Swiss league title in 32 years. A midfielder who spent seven years with Salzburg, he returned to lead the club to a domestic double in 2014/15 after managerial spells at Altach and Grödig. He then crossed the border to spend the next three seasons in Berne.
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