When all Eintracht Frankfurt fans gathered in a corner of the stadium after the final whistle of this historic 90 minutes, the full extent was finally visible: In the Camp Nou, this venerable FC Barcelona stadium, around 25,000 Frankfurters, who had previously been sitting around the entire oval, formed and with the final whistle had jumped the fences between the blocks, probably the biggest outward curve in the world. Together with the team, they celebrated one of the most important successes in the club’s history: 3-2 against Barça. Not much more is possible.
Eintracht had previously prevailed in what was ultimately a dramatic game against the overwhelming favorites from Catalonia, perhaps the most dazzling club in the world, and thus secured their ticket to the semi-finals in the Europa League. A sensation that emotionally comes close to the 2018 cup win and crowned an already epic day in Barcelona. “Today, all of Barcelona is in the hands of Frankfurt,” President Peter Fischer gave the starting signal for ecstasy. “We’re having the biggest party this city has ever seen.”
Glasner shows the diver
This Frankfurt bash started on the lawn. After the team had completed the obligatory lap of honor through the entire stadium, there was no stopping the spontaneously set up white Eintracht-curve. “Europe’s best team” was celebrated, double goal scorer Filip Kostic was celebrated, Martin Hinteregger and Kevin Trapp were loudly quoted individually in the curve, even coach Oliver Glasner was no slouch and showed a flawless diver. “You can’t buy these moments with any money in the world, it burns into your heart and stays with you for life,” commented the Austrian on the celebrations with the fans.
But how did it even come to this? Spurred on by the fans, who had already taken over the city visually and acoustically during the day and ensured a home game in Spain in the evening, Eintracht unleashed a force that even rolled over Barca. “It was unbelievable today. When I came out to warm up, I thought I was in Frankfurt,” Trapp praised his own followers. “It was very, very loud and very, very extraordinary. We wanted to give something back to the fans on the pitch.” And they did.
“What my players did today was unbelievable”
Eintracht, who had already put in an extremely strong performance in the first leg, followed up their courageous announcements with deeds in Barcelona and burned by far the best performance of the season onto the pitch. In the absence of pacesetter Djibril Sow (injured) and central defender Tuta (suspended), who were replaced by Sebastian Rode and Almamy Touré, the Hessians attacked the home side in their own half at the Camp Nou too, forcing mistakes early on. After four minutes, Kostic scored the lead with a penalty, Rafael Borré with a dream goal (36th) and Kostic again (67th) even increased to 3-0 in the meantime. In words: three to zero.