The German side yet are unbeaten in the Europa League in front of their fans

Despite going into the first leg of this tie off the back of consecutive wins, the men from Johan Cruyff Arena, failed to get the job done in front of a home crowd last week, despite taking an early lead through powerful forward Brian Brobbey.

In contrast, the Eagles soared on their travels for the road for the first time in a while, putting two recent defeats behind them, coming from a goal down to return home with the aggregate lead, thanks largely to a second-half winner from unlikely goal source Ellyes Skhiri, who scored his first competitive goal in well over a year.

Now back in front of a home crowd, Dino Toppmöller’s men will surely fancy themselves to make it through, but we shouldn’t assume that this is done and dusted. After all, the visitors have won each of their last four away games, recently beating Belgium’s Union SG away from home in this competition. A similar effort on Thursday and they could easily be the ones to make the last eight.

As touched on above, Thursday’s hosts beat Ajax in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam last week, coming from a goal down to secure a 1-2 victory. That match was the first ever competitive meeting between the two teams.

For the hosts, Arthur Theate, who featured from the start a week ago, is likely to miss out as a result of sustaining a fresh muscle injury. Robin Koch, who has missed the last couple of matches through illness remains a doubt.

For Ajax, there will be no Jordan Henderson, who is suspended, while Brian Bobbey, who scored last week, is also a doubt. There are also concerns over the fitness of Kenneth Taylor. Wout Weghorst remains sidelined. It’s also worrying for the visitors that first-choice keeper Pasveer is out.

Frankfurt: Trapp, Tuta, Collins, Kristensen, Knauff, Larsson, Skhiri, Gotze, Ekitike, Chaibi.

Ajax: Gorter, Hato, Baas, Sutalo, Gaaei, Mokio, Fitz-Jim, van de Boomen, Godts, Berghuis, Traore.