West Ham vs. Eintracht Frankfurt Predictions: Goals on the menu at the London Stadium

The European Dream continues for West Ham United on Thursday evening as they welcome German outfit Eintracht Frankfurt to the London Stadium for the first leg of their semi-final tie. We've asked Joshua Jones to preview this one and select his two best bets. 

46 years on from their last European semi-final, which was remarkably also against Frankfurt, David Moyes has led his side to within touching distance of a place in the final.

The Hammers are clearly prioritising their cup run too, over scrapping for a UEFA Conference League spot with Manchester United, as was evidenced by their line-up against Chelsea on Sunday.

Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen, and Manuel Lanzini all started that game on the bench before second-half cameos whilst Michail Antonio stayed put on the sidelines despite the scoreline.

The Jamaican forward - who Moyes has ‘urged to start scoring again’ - has enjoyed 11 days off and should be ready to go here against an Eintracht side currently languishing in 9th in the Bundesliga.

Oliver Glasner’s side have clearly turned their full attention to continental football too, and their domestic form is testament to that.

The Eagles have won as many games in the Bundesliga since the start of February (two in 10) as they have in the Europa League (two in four) - leaving them as close to the relegation playoffs as they are to re-qualifying for this competition.

Their performances on the continent have made up for that poor domestic form though, and a famous win in Catalunya earlier this month will live long in the memory back in Hesse.

Eintracht went to the Camp Nou and barely broke a sweat, essentially leading from the off against Barcelona and going into injury time with a 3-0 advantage - eventually winning 3-2 with the scoreline not reflecting the comfortable nature of the win.

The situation was the same, but different, 400 miles away in Lyon where West Ham’s 3-0 spanking of Les Gones didn’t necessarily portray the domination it seems to have.

Peter Boss’s side created 2.25xG worth of chances without finding the net in that game and managed to create 4.63xG across the two legs and scored just a single goal.

The Hammers scored three times in 10 minutes either side of half-time to completely deflate their opponents, and were somewhat lucky to fend off waves of pressure - with the Ligue 1 side missing two ‘big chances’ on the night.

They’ll have to be even luckier if they are to keep Frankfurt out tonight, with Craig Dawson their only available central defender for the tie.

It likely means full-back pairing Ben Johnson and Aaron Creswell will have to fill the gaps in their back-three against a Frankfurt side that have scored in all of their Europa League games.

The German side have seen both sides score in nine of those matches and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see this one turn into a shootout.

One of Eintracht’s key outlets in the Europa League has been Ansgar Knauff - a natural winger plying his trade at right-wing-back for Oliver Glasner’s side.

The Dortmund-loanee has managed 25% of Eintracht’s 24 shots on target in the Europa League since joining in January, with his six attempts on goal more than centre-forward Rafael Santos Borré.

The 20-year-old scored an absolute stunner against Barcelona at the Waldstadion and hit the woodwork against Betis in the last 16 too so it’s clear he has an eye for goal.

He’s managed at least one attempt on target in seven of his last 10 starts for Frankfurt, only failing to take a shot in one of those games, as well as taking 12 shots in four starts in the Europa League.

The Ghanaian is averaging 1.5 shots on target per game across those four too and could be ready to exploit West Ham’s defensive frailties here, especially against Arthur Musuaku who looks likely to be making his first back-to-back starts since December.

Knauff also leads Frankfurt’s available starters for both shots per game (2.30) and fouls per game (2.50) so the 39/1 about him scoring and being carded certainly appeals