5 reasons Frankfurt will beat Galatasaray

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1) Early season excitement

With 12 goals scored and three wins from their first three competitive games of 2025/26, the Eagles very much hit the ground running in the new campaign.

A 5-0 DFB Cup first-round win over Engers was followed up by a 4-1 thrashing of Werder Bremen on the opening Bundesliga weekend and then a 3-1 success away to Hoffenheim.

Watch: Frankfurt made it two wins from two at Hoffenheim

On Matchday 3, they suffered a 3-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen away from home, but they have still made a very positive start to the campaign.

That has in part been made possible by some shrewd summer signings, with Toppmöller adding proven Bundesliga quality to his squad in the form of Michael Zetterer, Ritsu Dōan and Jonathan Burkardt.

2) Youthful spark 

Much of the credit for those early victories is down to the brilliance of their new signings, with Dōan scoring twice against Hoffenheim and Zetterer also convincing between the sticks.

However, the impact of their youthful core of Nnamdi Collins, Can Uzun and Jean-Mattéo Bahoya cannot be overstated.

The young trio started in both of the side’s first two Bundesliga wins - and did far more than make up the numbers. Bahoya struck twice in the opener against Bremen, while Uzun has scored in all three league games so far.

Meanwhile, Collins’ superb start to the season at the heart of the defence was rewarded with a first senior international call-up from Julian Nagelsmann for Germany's 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia and Northern Ireland. The 21-year-old was even handed his full debut against the former.

Watch: Frankfurt's new goal brokers

3) European experience

Although this will only be Frankfurt’s third campaign at Europe’s top table, they still have enough continental success stories in their rear-view mirror to provide them with the belief they need to overcome the Turkish champions.

The most notable of which was winning the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League, having previously reached the semi-finals (2018/19) and the round of 16 (2020/21) in the same competition.

Furthermore, Toppmöller has won 10 of the 21 European matches he has overseen in charge of Frankfurt, giving him a 48 percent win rate. That rises to 60 percent on home turf, having won six out of 10 at Deutsche Bank Park. 

4) Toppmöller’s European hunger

Toppmöller’s first two seasons in the Frankfurt dugout have been nothing short of remarkable. A sixth-place finish in 2023/24 secured their return to the Europa League the following season - a campaign where, for a while, the Eagles even looked like surprise contenders for the Bundesliga title.

Their league form eventually faltered, allowing Leverkusen and Bayern Munich to pull clear, but in Europe, Eintracht continued to soar. After brushing aside Ajax 6-2 on aggregate in the Europa League round of 16, they only succumbed to a narrow defeat to eventual tournament winners Tottenham Hotspur. 

Toppmöller has proven he can get the best out of his (ever-changing) squad, which in turn has shown it can mix it with Europe’s best. His side will enter the new campaign with the ambition to go deep into another European tournament.

5) Out for revenge

A winning start against Galatasaray would provide a positive early omen for the Eagles, who are yet to beat the Turkish giants after two previous meetings.

Those two clashes came way back in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup, before the majority of the current Frankfurt squad were even born. A side containing the likes of Jay-Jay Okocha and Tony Yeboah were held to a goalless draw at home, before suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat in Istanbul.

A first win over them would get their Champions League campaign off to a flying start, with the visiting side having added former Bundesliga winners İlkay Gündoğan and Leroy Sané to a side that won the Turkish SüperLig by an 11-point margin last season.