Brentford v Eintracht Frankfurt: Pre-season friendly preview and team news
Brentford will host Eintracht Frankfurt in a pre-season friendly at GTech Community Stadium in Brentford, United Kingdom on Saturday, 15 August at 7:30 p.m. IST as both clubs complete preparations ahead of their domestic seasons.
Brentford narrowly missed out on continental qualification by goal difference last season and enter this fixture off a 4-2 win over Rennes in which Igor Thiago, Ethan Pinnock, Callum Wilson and Dango Ouattara each scored. The side is managed by Irish coach Keith Andrews, who the article describes as having done a brilliant job last season, and Brentford’s recent results are listed as W-D-D-L-W after their summer friendlies. The club have recruited Mamadou Sangare from RC Lens, Aidan Stokes from RB Leipzig and Callum Wilson from West Ham following the departures of Jordan Henderson and Benjamin Arthur.
Eintracht Frankfurt also missed out narrowly on European football, finishing one place behind Freiburg in the Bundesliga, and arrive with a run of five straight wins recorded as W-W-W-W-W. Frankfurt signed Raphael Onyedika from Club Brugge and Noel Aseko from Bayern Munich and have appointed Austrian coach Adolf Hutter, who returns for a second spell after managing the club from 2018 to 2021. The article notes that during Hutter’s previous tenure Frankfurt won the Europa League, and states he will be keen to bring UCL nights back to Frankfurt.
The Brentford attack will again feature Igor Thiago, identified in the article as a Brazilian striker from Gama who previously played for Club Brugge and domestic clubs in Brazil before moving to Brentford in 2024; he is also described as a former Cruzeiro striker. The piece records that Igor Thiago contributed 26 goal contributions in 40 games last season and that he scored in the win over Rennes, with the expectation he will seek to extend his scoring run.
Eintracht’s veteran goalkeeper Michael Zetterer is set to return to the starting lineup with Kaua making way, and the article describes Zetterer as Munich-born, a former Germany U20 and U21 international who has previously played for Werder Bremen and Zwolle. Zetterer will face Brentford’s attacking trio of Igor Thiago, Ouattara and Anthony, and the report calls him an accomplished senior presence for Frankfurt.
Brentford have injury concerns with Sepp van den Berg and Benjamin Frederick sidelined, while centre forward Fabio Carvalho is still recovering and may begin the game on the bench. For Eintracht Frankfurt, Timothy Chandler will be unavailable due to a hamstring issue, and there is uncertainty over whether Ayoube Amaimouni Echghouyab will start at right wing-back. The two clubs are scheduled to meet for the first time in this friendly.
Projected lineups in the article are: Caoimhín Kelleher (GK); Aaron Hickey, Nathan Collins, Ethan Pinnock, Keane Lewis-Potter; Ibrahim Sangaré, Vitaly Janelt; Dango Ouattara, Mathias Jensen, Jaidon Anthony; Igor Thiago. Michael Zetterer (GK); Robin Koch, Lucas Beraldo, Paulo Otávio, Keisuke Kosugi; Raphael Onyedika; Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab, Mario Götze, Can Uzun, Ansgar Knauff; Jonathan Burkardt. The preview concludes with a narrow away-win prediction for Eintracht Frankfurt and notes the match can be streamed on Prime Video.
Brentford will kickstart their domestic season against Tottenham next.
