West Ham have a monumental task as RB Leipzig look to seal the deal

(Football news) West Ham head into the second leg after a shock 2-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg. The Hammers now have a monumental task to overturn the deficit in Frankfurt in the second leg. West Ham make the trip to Deutsche Bank Park sitting in seventh position in the Premier League standings, while Frankfurt are down in 11th place in the Bundesliga. Injuries and suspensions have played a major role in their poor recent form, West Ham head into this game on the back of one win and four defeats from seven matches in all competitions.

Their latest defeat came at home to Arsenal on Sunday and saw Manchester United move six points clear in the race for sixth position. West Ham are now looking at the Europa Conference League football unless they can turn things around against Eintracht Frankfurt. The goals from Ansgar Knauff and Daichi Kamada have them in the driving seat, but it has now removed an underdog tag that has followed Frankfurt throughout the knockout stages. Furthermore, Frankfurt are heading into this match having gone six matches without recording a home win in any competition; their only two victories came at Barcelona and in the London Stadium. Nevertheless, Frankfurt has gone 11 matches unbeaten in this year's competition, and will be looking to book a final against either Rangers or RB Leipzig.

Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:

Trapp; Tuta, Hinteregger, Toure; Knauff, Sow, Rode, Kostic; Lindstrom, Kamada; Borre

West Ham United possible starting lineup:

Areola; Coufal, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Lanzini, Fornals; Antonio

RB Leipzig will look to enter their first European final in their club history as they take a 1-0 lead to Glasgow to face a spirited Rangers side. Rangers are realistically out of the title race in the Scottish Premiership and on the other hand Leipzig have recently dropped down to fifth position in the Bundesliga. A narrow defeat was harsh on the Scottish giants who were missing several key players, but they would have probably taken a one-goal deficit to Ibrox. Van Bronckhorst side are coming off a 1-1 draw against their arch rivals Celtic last weekend as they had rested some key players for the Europa league semi finals 2nd leg.

Tedesco would not have envisaged Leipzig suffering back-to-back defeats in the Bundesliga, losses which has now left them outside of the Champions League places in the Bundesliga. After a surprising loss at home to Union Berlin ahead of the first Rangers game, Leipzig went down 3-1 at Borussia Monchengladbach this weekend, even when Gladbach played the final 26 minutes with 10 men. Although Leipzig have completely turned their season under Tedesco during the second half of the season, their next four fixtures will define their season with success with a top-four finish and the DFB-Pokal also on their list of targets.

Rangers possible starting lineup:

McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Bassey, Barisic; Lundstram, Jack, Kamara; Aribo, Sakala, Kent

RB Leipzig possible starting lineup:

Gulacsi; Klostermann, Orban, Halstenberg; Henrichs, Laimer, Adams, Angelino; Olmo; Szoboszlai, Nkunku

Also read: Real Madrid reach the UCL final with yet another dramatic comeback

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