It was well past midnight in this one historic night of Seville, when Oliver Glasner really tried again. The Eintracht Frankfurt coach called on his players to form a lane. Then the Austrian started to diver and slid on his stomach in the direction of the award ceremony. Once briefly shaken, assured that the pants are not like in Barcelona was broken, then there was the deserved medal. In gold. For the Europa League title. An epic event for the city, club and fans.
“This is the greatest moment in the club’s history,” said President Peter Fischer of the dramatic one 5-4 penalty shoot-out win over Glasgow Rangers shortly after the final whistle, sober as usual. The Hessians had previously crowned a season in which not much went together in a final in which a lot went wrong in the meantime, with the fulfillment of their big dream: the first European success in 42 years, the second European success ever. And that was in the year that Jürgen Grabowski died. What a story.
Rode as a symbolic figure
This epic evening, which the fans duly ushered in with another impressive choreo, began with a moment of shock. Sebastian Rode, the fighter in midfield, was so unluckily hit in the head by his opponent Jon Lundstram after a few minutes that he immediately bled profusely and had to wear a turban. Rode quickly changed the blood-smeared jersey and continued playing. An image that characterized the game well. Because both teams went over the pain threshold.
The final in the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan was definitely not top-class football. The intensity and passion that Eintracht and Rangers burned onto the pitch in tropical temperatures ripped each of the 38,842 spectators out of their red plastic bowls. The undeserved lead of the Scots, who benefited from the fact that defender Tuta got a cramp in the decisive running duel with goalscorer Joe Aribo and simply fell over (57th), was countered by Rafael Borré (69th). The decision was then made after 120 hard-fought minutes.
Trapp gives the party starting signal
Match winner Kevin Trapp parried Aaron Ramsey’s fourth Rangers penalty, Borré chased Eintracht’s fifth penalty into the net. The rest was boundless cheering, lots of tears of joy and wildly dancing Frankfurt footballers. Filip Kostic raced overjoyed in the direction of the curve even before the trophy was handed over and was celebrated. It was reserved for Timothy Chandler to present the trophy to the fans in full sprint. Later at the press conference, there was the obligatory beer shower for trainers Oliver Glasner and Kevin Trapp.
“It wasn’t highly dramatic, it was turbo-dramatic,” said CEO Axel Hellmann, summing up the evening appropriately. Eintracht proved once again that they were unstoppable in this competition this year and that they wanted to win this title with all their might. “As so often in the Europa League, we came back after a setback,” emphasized Glasner. “We showed once again what makes us special.”