Eintracht Frankfurt will commence their season with a favourable Pokal matchup with 5th-division SC St. Tönis 1911/20. Despite a shaky end to the pre-season, Frankfurt will look to regain their confidence against Pokal debutants St. Tönis and set the tone for the new season.
Recent recapEintracht Frankfurt without a shadow of a doubt had a disastrous 2025/26 campaign. Following a 3rd-place Bundesliga finish in 2024/25, Frankfurt crashed back down to 8th this past season, desperately missing the likes of Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike after selling them to Premier League clubs Manchester City and Liverpool respectively.
Frankfurt also lost in the 2nd round of the Pokal last season, albeit in an unfortunate draw against league runners-up Borussia Dortmund that went to penalties.
This season, Frankfurt will also be without key player Nathaniel Brown, who signed for Bayern München for €55m this summer following impressive showings at the World Cup.
Now, under “new” head coach Adi Hütter (he actually previously coached Frankfurt between 2018-2021), the team hopes that Hütter can guide this team back to contention. And so far he has done a solid job if we are to go off the summer friendlies.
Until their final friendly match, Frankfurt were having an extremely promising pre-season tour, recording 6 wins and 1 draw (including a victory over newly promoted Premier League side Hull City).
But then came their final pre-season match against English side Brentford. Now, a loss against a side that finished 9th in the Premier League last season is nothing to be ashamed about, but losing 7-0 is absolutely something to be embarrassed about, which is exactly what Frankfurt did at the Brentford Community Stadium last week.
A Pokal matchup against St. Tönis might be exactly what the doctor ordered for Frankfurt, who will undoubtedly be looking to shake off their humiliating last match and reset for the new season.
St. Tönis, having qualified via the Niederrheinpokal (despite finishing as runners-up, St. Tönis still qualified as MSV Duisburg already qualified through a high finish in the 3. Liga), will be making their debut in the cup competition. The side from the district of Viersen (near the Dutch border) have already commenced their season with an astonishing 3-2 comeback victory over Spvg. Solingen-Wald 03, scoring goals in the 84th, 86th, and 90+5th minute to initiate a positive start to the 2026/27 Oberliga Niederrhein campaign.
Quite unsurprisingly, this will be St. Tönis’ first ever meeting with Frankfurt; in fact, this will actually be St. Tönis’ first ever meeting against Bundesliga opposition.
While it is amazing that St. Tönis will be making their Pokal debut against such esteemed opposition, it’s pretty safe to say that the 5th division side might receive a beatdown from Die Adler (“The Eagles”).
The highest level opposition that St. Tönis have faced in their history come exclusively from the 3rd division, and I hate to break it to St. Tönis fans but their record against them hasn't been great. In their 4 meetings against the likes of Rot-Weiss Essen, MSV Duisburg and Fortuna Düsseldorf, St. Tönis have not only lost all 4 of their matches, but were also outscored 23-1 - including a 5-0 defeat against recently relegated Düsseldorf this summer.
Eintracht Frankfurt on the other hand have a pretty solid record against teams from the 5th division or lower (it would be quite concerning if they didn’t!). This summer, Frankfurt played against 6th division side Rot-Weiss Ffm and 5th division FC Gießen, defeating them 7-0 and 7-1 respectively.
Team newsSt. Tönis will have their full lineup available to them, with no suspensions or injuries.
Frankfurt will be without defender Nnamdi Collins and new midfield signing Noël Aséko, both currently out with injuries with no clear timeline on their returns.
Obviously it goes without saying that this should be a walk in the park for Frankfurt - a loss against St. Tönis would without question and exaggeration be the biggest upset in cup competition history. And while rivals are surely salivating at the prospect of Frankfurt losing this match, by all measures there just isn’t - or at least, there shouldn’t be - a reality where the 5-time Pokal champions crumble in this fixture.
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