Barcelona (AP) – At the end of a memorable day of football, the surreal moments never stopped. Around 30,000 fans from Frankfurt sing and celebrate on a Thursday evening at 11.30pm in Barcelona’s otherwise empty Camp Nou.
Double goal scorer Filip Kostic, who expressed his urgent desire to move to Rome by strike in the summer, fervently hoists the Eintracht jersey and lets himself be celebrated by the curve. The otherwise often reserved Oliver Glasner slides head first onto the lawn and tears his pants. For real? Or invented and too cheesy?
For real. After the splendid 3-2 victory at FC Barcelona and the semi-finals of the Europa League, everything seemed possible for Eintracht. “Huge praise to the players for what they have done here. Huge praise to our fans, who have achieved something here that is hard to find anywhere else in the world,” said Glasner, who called his destroyed pants “no matter” and said the unbelievable evening was extremely high rated. “It’s burned into my heart forever. I’ll take these feelings with me until I’m hopefully one floor up.”
hope for the final
But before that, the 47-year-old has an important task with Eintracht, because the emotional trip to Europe does not end in Barcelona. Now, on April 28, London is calling – where West Ham United will be in the semi-finals – and then the big final in Seville is to follow. May 18th would certainly be the next big holiday for Eintracht, which already celebrated Maundy Thursday in Barcelona with tens of thousands of fans and numerous activities.
“Our goal is to get into the final. That’s the very clear goal,” said sporting director Markus Krösche, who only succeeded Fredi Bobic before the season started. While Bobic is fighting against relegation at Hertha in Berlin, Krösche is now the master builder of a team that has just taken world club and top favorite Barça out of the Europa League competition. And well deserved. Double packers Kostic and Rafael Borré had initiated the win, the two extremely late goals from Sergio Busquets and Memphis Depay were no longer enough for Barca.
“We feel extremely good. We’ve done something historic,” said board spokesman Axel Hellmann, who directly announced an “eagle invasion” for London. The second leg takes place in Frankfurt on May 5th and is sure to be sold out in no time. RB Leipzig and Glasgow Rangers will duel in the second semi-final, so even a German final is conceivable in Seville.
The topic of discussion after the game was the constellation at the Camp Nou, where almost half of the fans were united. Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez felt he had lost home advantage and called it a “planning error”. Eintracht board member Hellmann countered this and defended the club from Catalonia. “There are a few negative voices like: how can that be? It was the case that our fans bought tickets through all channels – up to the moment before the game. You can’t see that as a club,” said Hellmann.