Barcelona (dpa) – Driven by 30,000 of its own fans, Eintracht Frankfurt has written a small piece of football history and memorably thrown the great FC Barcelona out of the Europa League.
In the legendary Camp Nou, the team of coach Oliver Glasner furiously prevailed 3: 2 (2: 0) and, like in 2019, made it into the semi-finals of the competition. On April 28th and May 5th it’s now against West Ham United, the second European triumph seems absolutely within reach after the huge coup against the top favorites. The final will be held in Seville on May 18, and RB Leipzig is still there.
In front of a total of around 90,000 spectators, Filip Kostic (4th minute / penalty kick / 67th) and Rafael Borré (36th) scored the goals for Eintracht, who showed no spark of nervousness in the self-proclaimed “game of the century” and deservedly progressed. For the highly decorated club from Spain it is the next low blow after the premature exit from the Champions League. In the wild stoppage time, captain Sergio Busquets (90 + 1) shortened. Then Memphis Depay (90+10) sunk a penalty kick. Previously, Frankfurt’s Evan Ndicka (90 + 10) had also seen yellow and red.
A unique holiday for the Hessians
Even before the showdown in the huge temple, Maundy Thursday became a unique football holiday for the Hessians. More than 30,000 fans had come specially and sometimes with great effort. Just in time for the day of the game, the spring weather was perfect with almost 20 degrees. And the Eintracht fans were everywhere: in the big squares of the city, along the Ramblas, at the port, on the beach.
Club president Peter Fischer drank cans of beer in Plaça de Catalunya with the fans, most of whom dressed in white – the color of Barça’s arch-rivals Real Madrid – and then flocked to the stadium in huge crowds. “Europe’s best team” was repeated over and over again, and the tourists on the sightseeing buses were able to see an attraction that Barcelona has never seen before.
In the stadium there was a fanatical mood – otherwise more familiar from South America – which was not only due to the huge number of Eintracht supporters. But calm quickly returned to the Catalan fan base when Eric Garcia clumsily tore opponent Jesper Lindström to the ground after just two minutes. Kostic converted the following penalty safely against national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen. The guests initially missed further opportunities because Borré repeatedly played too imprecisely in counterattacks.
Heated, emotional and varied
With the lead behind them, the Glasner team initially focused their attention on the defensive. Goalscorer Kostic acted at times as a left-back in a five-man chain. Barça wingers Ousmane Dembélé and Ferran Torres had strong individual moves, but Eintracht kept throwing three or four opponents at them. Ex-Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed the greatest opportunity to equalize quickly and headed wide of the goal (8′).
The game was heated, emotional and varied. Ansgar Knauff, who already stood out with a dream goal in the first leg, started a solo worth seeing, but this time the end was too harmless. What you couldn’t say about Borré’s shot: The previously unfortunate Colombian took measurements from a good 20 meters and completed the goal to make it 2-0. Frankfurt’s fans jumped freely through the stadium, Barça coach Xavi Hernandez looked crippled at the much-touted top pitch at Camp Nou.
Kostic made it 3-0 in a playful way
There was also after the break, when the lower tier in Barcelona’s curve was suddenly empty because the supporters were apparently protesting against the club’s ticket policy. The 30,000 Frankfurters at the Camp Nou were probably too much for them, the amazing result did the rest. After about ten minutes they came back loudly, Trapp had just defused a huge chance from Aubameyang.
When Kostic broke through on the left and almost effortlessly scored the third goal, the matter was settled and a team that was actually built to win the Champions League was finally defeated. Tens of thousands of Frankfurters sang loudly “Oh, how beautiful that is” and thus outvoted the supporters of the hosts. Later it was even said: “One goes, one goes in.” After the exciting final phase, the Eintracht jubilation erupted.