The 2023 Champions League Round of 16 continues on Tuesday, Feb. 21 with Leg 1 of Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Napoli at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany. Bettors can catch the broadcast at 3 p.m. ET on various streaming platforms like fuboTV, Paramount+ and Univision. A winner would have the edge before the two meet again in the second leg on March 7 in Naples, Italy. As part of TheLines.com soccer coverage, let’s take a look at Champions League odds for this match.
Eintracht Frankfurt Vs Napoli Champions League Odds
Bettors should be aware during the Champions League knockout rounds that the three-way moneyline is only for 90 minutes plus stoppage time. If you bet on either team to win and the match is a draw, you lose the bet. It is not a push.
Eintracht Frankfurt Team Preview
After getting the better of Glasgow Rangers in last season’s Europa League final, Eintracht Frankfurt was awarded the additional prize of automatic qualification to this season’s Champions League.
An invite that saw the German outfit placed in Group D as the top seed, and although they had to make do with finishing second behind Tottenham, their European adventure still continues past the turn of the year.
However, Oliver Glasner’s men have been given a rather tough draw for the Round of 16 and with Napoli waiting in the wings, there is every chance that Eintracht Frankfurt’s road to the final will soon come to an end.
Then again, the Bundesliga outfit has been underestimated by many this season and the same could have been said during last year’s journey to Europa League success. Which means Napoli will overlook them at their peril.
While European soccer may serve as a neat distraction when looking at their current Bundesliga form. If they are to return to the Champions League next time, they may have to win the current edition of the competition.
With a top-four finish back home very much in the balance, this continental quest will certainly take on extra importance for Glasner and his players. They will be in no mood to roll out the red carpet on Tuesday.
Napoli Team Preview
If the Serie A title race needed to declare a winner today, Napoli would have won the race a long time ago. At the time of writing, they are 15 points clear of Inter in second and it will need a herculean collapse for them not to be crowned league champions in May.
Because of the gap between Luciano Spaletti’s men and the rest, Napoli is the most feared team in Italy. Not only that, but they are quickly becoming one of the most feared teams in Europe.
After putting Liverpool to the sword in Matchday 1 of the group stage, the 4-1 win in Naples would be the first of five successive Champions League victories. Were it not for applying the brakes on Matchday 6, they would have likely picked up a perfect tally of 18 points.
In the six matches that Napoli contested before Christmas, they managed a highly impressive 20 goals. Averaging 3.33 a game, this is not a team to be messed with and this is something that upcoming opponents Eintracht Frankfurt will be wary of.
With the likes of Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in attack, Napoli has two players that are more than capable of hurting their opponents – something that they have been doing on a regular basis this season.
Not only that, but because of their talents, Napoli is currently sitting in the bracket of teams that you would not class as underdogs in the purest sense but certainly a team that could go all the way and Tuesday could remind people of just how deadly they are.
Champions League Knockout Rounds Bracket
Since the UCL draws for new matchups after the round of 16, there’s no set bracket for fans to follow just yet.
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Napoli Expected Goals
In a sport where scoring has extremely high variance, opportunities to score and opportunities allowed has become a more respected measure of the quality of a team’s play. Expected goals (xG) measures the quality of a shot based on several factors, including shot type, shot angle and distance from goal. Similarly, expected goals allowed (xGA) measure the quality of a team’s defense. Subtracting expected goals allowed from expected goals equals expected goal differential (xGD) and offers an overall advanced measure of a team.
| Team | MP | GF | GA | GD | xG | xGA | xGD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eintracht Frankfurt | 6 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 6.5 | 7.4 | -0.9 |
| Napoli | 6 | 20 | 6 | +14 | 16.2 | 8.4 | +7.8 |
Matchup History
Although Eintracht Frankfurt and Napoli are yet to meet in the Champions League, they have previously met in UEFA’s second competition – one that was previously known as the UEFA Cup.
A third-round tie during the 1994/95 season would be responsible for pitting these two teams together and with Eintracht Frankfurt winning by a goal to nil on both German and Italian soil, it would be they who made further progress.
That though was 28 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Therefore, the two previous wins for the Bundesliga outfit should not be used as a precursor to future events.
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Napoli Champions League Odds: Bets To Consider
Napoli To Win:
When Liverpool suffered a 4-1 defeat to Napoli at the beginning of this season’s Champions League, soccer’s global fraternity stood up and took notice. By the time they had topped the same group table, it became incredibly difficult to look elsewhere.
Scintillating both at home and abroad, Luciano Spaletti’s men have quickly become the gold standard in Italian football and now the Naples-based outfit is looking to become the same in the Champions League.
With the pairing of Eintracht Frankfurt in this season’s Round of 16, Napoli has managed to avoid the true heavyweights that also made the knockout phase and a trip to Germany may offer the perfect opportunity to generate further continental momentum.
Of course, it would be unfair to completely overlook Oliver Glasner’s players before they welcome Napoli in midweek. However, many a better team has been blown away by the light blue this season and nothing suggests that Eintracht Frankfurt will offer anything different.
This is why I can only see the traffic moving in one single direction and it is traffic that sees Napoli earn themselves a first-leg advantage. They have already thrashed the likes of Liverpool and Ajax this season, another scalp could be just around the corner.
Admittedly the sportsbooks are not offering the most generous price when it comes to the away win but sometimes you have to take what is on offer and with that in mind, it is Napoli to be victorious at odds of +120
Napoli Halftime And Over 1.5 First Half Goals: +475
While to build on the logic of the first tip above, there is also heavy reasoning behind Napoli being quick out of the blocks. Considering this is a team that is averaging 2.5 goals per Serie A game and averaged 3.3 in the group stage, they simply do not wait for their opponents.
This is why I like the look of Napoli not only winning after 90 minutes but also after 45 minutes. In addition to this, my hunch is that two or more goals are registered before the referee blows for halftime.
With Napoli looking so adept at playing on the front foot, they will aim to take the game early on and their lightning-fast attack may end up being far too hot for Eintracht Frankfurt to deal with
The hosts are currently conceding 1.45 goals per Bundesliga game and when you consider the relative step up in competition that they will face in midweek, this could spell danger before the interval.
Then again, we cannot overlook Oliver Glasner’s men when it comes to scoring goals for themselves and after causing Tottenham problems in the Champions League group stage, they may have more up their sleeve on Tuesday.
Those two teams shared five goals in North London and I am looking for a lot less than that for my second bet. Whether it be a 2-0 or 2-1 lead for Napoli before the break, this wager will get itself over the line with a decent amount of profit.
Best of luck handicapping Champions League odds.
