Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

played their very first official match in competitive European football on 11 November 1959. This was a

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

first round game against

BSC Young Boys BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, reac ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The match ended in a 4–1 away victory for the ''Eintracht''. However, a

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

XI took part already earlier in the

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...

with several Eintracht players in the squad. Requirements had it that the best players from the eligible teams Eintracht Frankfurt,

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

, Kickers Offenbach and SpVgg 03 Neu-Isenburg were picked to form a representative inter-city side.

Summary

The club's first ever match against European opponents was a friendly match against

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

side

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association, ...

in 1920 when the

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

ns visited Germany. In season 1959–60, Eintracht took part in the

. In this season, they became the first German club to reach a European final, eventually losing 7–3 to

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. In the 1966–67 season, the club played in the Intertoto Cup which they finally won, facing

Inter Bratislava FK Inter Bratislava () is a football club based in Bratislava, Slovakia, temporarily playing its home matches in Stupava. History Inter Bratislava was founded in 1940 by the Apollo refinery (later renamed Slovnaft). Following the end of World Wa ...

in the final. Plus in the same season, Eintracht played in the

and reached the semi-finals. In

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, the ''Eagles'' won the Cup of the Alps, a tournament then composed of Italian, Swiss and German teams. Frankfurt's first appearance in the renamed

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

was in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, the first step in the Cup Winners' Cup stage was made in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

. In the 1979–80 edition of the

, Eintracht reached the finals. The first leg was lost at fellow West

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, but the second leg was decided by the send on striker Fred Schaub in the 81st minute and secured the

Mainhattan Mainhattan is a term referring to Frankfurt's skyline, especially that of its central business district, the Bankenviertel. The word is a portmanteau of Main, the river on which Frankfurt lies, and Manhattan, a reference to the inner city area's ...

club the first major European title. In the 1980s, the club struggled to participate regularly in European competitions. Between the beginning to the mid-1990s the ''Eagles'' re-established themselves as a powerhouse in Europe and advanced far in the UEFA Cup regularly with players such as

Uwe Bein Uwe Bein (born 26 September 1960) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Although, due to his reserved nature, he was never able to gain large public fame, Bein's fans and experts call him one of the most ...

Jay-Jay Okocha Augustine Azuka Okocha ( ; born 14 August 1973), commonly known as Jay-Jay Okocha, is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He played 73 times for the Nigeria national team between 1993 and 2006, scorin ...

, Uli Stein, Ralf Weber and

Tony Yeboah Anthony Yeboah (born 6 June 1966) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is considered one of the most prominent and prolific goal scorers in Ghanaian and African football history and gained a reputation for sc ...

on the books. Despite reaching the

1994–95 UEFA Cup The 1994–95 UEFA Cup was won by Parma on aggregate over Juventus. Internazionale were the defending champions with a wild card, but were knocked out in the first round by Aston Villa. New format Twenty-two national champions were demoted to t ...

quarter-finals, Eintracht bounced between the first two tiers for almost ten years after the relegation from the Bundesliga in the 1995–96 campaign. Since 2005, they were part of the first Bundesliga again and immediately qualified for the UEFA Cup due to the participation in the

DFB Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesl ...

final against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

who were already qualified for the Champions League. In the following UEFA Cup campaign, Eintracht reached the group stage and seemed to be likely to advance to the next round but conceded two goals at Fenerbahçe after being up 2–0 what meant that Eintracht had to defer to the Istanbul club. In

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, Eintracht played at Bordeaux with 12,000 fans from

and about 8,000

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

supporters. Eintracht were eliminated in the

round of 32 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

after drawing twice with

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, the qualification for the Europa League group stage was achieved by winning the

for the first time in thirty years. In the 2018–19 Europa League,

Luka Jović Luka Jović ( sr-Cyrl, Лука Јовић; born 23 December 1997) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Fiorentina and the Serbia national team. Early life Jović was born in Loznica, FR Yugoslavia. He was rais ...

with his ten goals aided Eintracht to reach the semi-finals of the competition, only losing on

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

to the eventual champions, Chelsea. On 14 April 2022, over 20,000 fans travelled as Eintracht defeated

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

3–2 at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

and 4–3 on aggregate in the

2021–22 UEFA Europa League The 2021–22 UEFA Europa League was the 51st season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 13th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Eintracht Frankf ...

to qualify for the semi-finals. On 18 May 2022, Eintracht secured the Europa League title after winning 5–4 on penalties (1–1 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

) against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. On 10 August 2022, Eintracht played in their first

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

against 2021–22 UEFA Champions Winners

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. They lost the game 2–0.

Overall record

:''Accurate as of 22 February 2024'' Legend: GF = Goals For. GA = Goals Against. GD = Goal Difference.

UEFA competitions

Non-UEFA competitions

Teams played

Eintracht Frankfurt have played against clubs from 36 countries (clubs classed by the country they were in when the game was played). Eintracht have played 99 different clubs in Europe.

Record by country of opposition

Pld – Played; W – Won; D – Drawn; L – Lost

Record players

;Key SC =

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

, EC / CL = European Cup / Champions League, CLQ = Champions League Qualifying, EL / UC = Europa League / UEFA Cup, ELQ = Europa League Qualifying, CWC = Cup Winners' Cup, UIC = Intertoto Cup, UECL = UEFA Europa Conference League

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

''Numbers in brackets indicate appearances made. Ø = goals per game''

Map

References

Notes

Sources

* {{German clubs in European football

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

German football clubs in international competitions