Ending the year in Jena

After winning 3-0 at home to Leipzig on Monday evening and climbing to the top of the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga table at the halfway point of the season, Eintracht Women travel to FC Carl Zeiss Jena on Friday 13 December (kick-off 18:30 CET).

Eintracht won 2-0 in Frankfurt when the two sides met on Matchday 1, and second-from-bottom Jena are still yet to win a game this season. Niko Arnautis’ side therefore go into the final match of 2024 as strong favourites and determined to pick up all three points again.

 

Being top at Christmas ‘enough motivation’

“On Monday night, we saw a team who played great football over the 90 minutes,” said head coach Arnautis. “To cap off the first half of the season in that way was special. It’s a nice feeling being top at the halfway stage, especially when you see how tight it’s getting. That makes it all the more important to keep going now.” 

Looking ahead to the upcoming assignment, Arnautis added: “On Tuesday, we already turned our attention to the away game in Jena. We don’t need any extra dose of motivation. Being able to celebrate Christmas as league leaders is enough motivation. We know that you can’t afford to have any periods where you’re not highly focused in the league, so we’ll prepare meticulously for this final match of the year and go all in against a defensively solid team who will fight for their first win of the season.”

Ilayda and Dilara Acikgöz, Barbara Dunst and Géraldine Reuteler will miss the final fixture of this year due to injury.