FFV Eintract Frankfurt Match Preview

West Ham United have already ended the unbeaten runs of both Sevilla and Olympique Lyonnais in this season’s UEFA Europa League and they are now looking to do the same to German outfit FFV Eintract Frankfurt starting tonight when they face the first-leg of their semi-final tie in Stratford.

The current Hammers’ squad will be hoping to emulate the heroics of John Lyall’s team of 1976 when the club last came up against tonight’s opponents, as they beat them 4-3 on aggregate at the same stage of the European Cup Winners Cup after a 2-1 first-leg defeat.

Before the first-leg of the quarter-final on April 7, the Irons won a Premier League home match against Everton but they go into this game off the back of a dramatic late defeat at Chelsea four days ago and they will want to atone for Sunday’s loss and hope they are halfway on the road back to Seville by the end of this encounter.

Despite his straight red card at Stamford Bridge last time out, Craig Dawson is available to take part in the match and David Moyes will also welcome back Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini after they were all rested against Thomas Tuchel’s men.

Mark Noble played in Sunday’s London derby and is set to retain his place here, while Nikola Vlašić could also start. Alphonse Areola is likely to once again take Łukasz Fabiański’s place in goal, while Arthur Masuaku, Andriy Yarmolenko, Vladimír Coufal and Ben Johnson are also pushing to be involved.

The match is an 8pm kick-off and live coverage will be screened by BT Sport from 7pm. The referee is Serdar Gözübüyük.