Filip Kostic gave Oliver Glasner’s (4th) team an early lead from the penalty spot. Rafael Borré (36th) increased with a dream goal before the break. After the break, Kostic (67th) made the preliminary decision again.
Only in added time (90+1/90+11) did Sergio Busquets and Memphis Depay shorten for the Blaugrana.
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Three things that stood out at the Eintracht Gala at Camp Nou:
1. Eintracht is the SG Europa League
In the league, Eintracht has been without a win for three games and has only scored a meager goal in the last three matches. The Hessians are currently in ninth place in the no-man’s-land of the Bundesliga. In August, the Adlerträger were knocked out of the DFB Cup in the first round at Waldhof Mannheim. Sounds like a weak season. But on Thursdays Frankfurt shows its Europa League face again this season. And how!
At the Camp Nou, Oliver Glasner’s team crowned their brilliant European season to date. “If anyone had told me after we left Mannheim that we would win in Barcelona six months later, I would have called them crazy,” said coach Glasner after the game on “RTL” and added: “But that’s a way we all walked together.”
Glasner with apology to Barça and fan homage: “Hardly exist in the world”
Eintracht made it to the semi-finals of the Europa League without a single defeat and can now have legitimate hopes of winning their first international title in over 40 years. “We played an outstanding game,” said captain Sebastian Rode after the gala against Barcelona. The 31-year-old was in the starting lineup for Djibril Sow and was the tireless driver of a passionately working team on the six. Rode was instrumental in Frankfurt once again making the impossible possible in the Europa League.
“To be honest, nobody expected that. Everyone thought Barcelona would shoot us out of the stadium,” said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, adding confidently: “We showed that we don’t have to hide from anyone.” Eintracht stirs up the Europa League – and reminds of the 2018/2019 season.
At that time, too, the furious Hessen advanced to the semi-finals via Inter Milan and Benfica Lisbon, only failed on penalties at the eventual winner FC Chelsea. Also this season, with West Ham United, a Premier League team is waiting for Frankfurt in the last four. Sports director Markus Krösche made the goal clear: “We have achieved a great success for Eintracht Frankfurt. But now it is clear: we want to go to the final.”
And goalkeeper Trapp also dreams of the final in Seville. “Of course we want to make it to the final. There’s no question about that,” said the 31-year-old international. Dreaming, according to Rode, is allowed. With all the European Cup euphoria in Catalonia: Eintracht will return to the dreary everyday life of the Bundesliga on Sunday. “I don’t even know what I’m going to tell the boys, we’re going to play Union Berlin in three days,” Glasner admitted to “RTL” after the game.
But that is secondary. After winning the biggest game in the club’s recent history, the focus is far from being on the federal capital, but instead on Barcelona: “Today we all want to enjoy the evening,” said the 47-year-old from Salzburg. Because: Eintracht parties take place on Thursdays.
Eintracht Frankfurt
Fotocredit: Getty Images
2. Glasner Entzaubert Xavi
Oliver Glasner was overjoyed. The Austrian slipped on his stomach through a trellis of cheering eagle bearers. “The pants are broken. But never mind,” he laughed. The reserved Eintracht coach was rightly the focus after the triumph at Camp Nou.
In the 100 minutes before, his team had disenchanted the Catalans tactically – of all things, the new Xavi-Barça: In just five months, the 2010 world champion had inoculated the Blaugrana with a new – or rather old – game idea. The 42-year-old led Barcelona from ninth to second in LaLiga and three weeks ago in a 4-0 gala win against Real Madrid in the Clásico. 15 games and almost three months Xavi was unbeaten with FC Barcelona.
But in Glasner Xavi found his master on Thursday evening. The powerful Frankfurt only received the Catalan ball possession machine 35 meters from their own goal, narrowed the spaces, doubled the dribbling strong Ferran Torres and Ousmane Dembélé on the flanks and dominated the half-spaces in front of the back three. Barcelona hardly found any solutions.
“We knew we had to suffer,” said Kevin Trapp. “We had to be focused for 90 minutes and take advantage of the counterattacking chances,” said the goalkeeper.
After 15 minutes, Ronald Araujo played a long ball born out of helplessness and lack of ideas into nothing. Xavi waved his arms wildly on the sidelines and asked his team to play short passes. In vain. “They were a bit better in the first half. They made a lot of counterattacks and they took control of the game,” admitted the Barça boss.
Filip Kostic
Fotocredit: Getty Images
That didn’t change when Xavi let his team constantly castle between a back three and a back four in the opening game in the first round.
“It’s unbelievable what the boys did today,” Glasner praised his self-sacrificing team. “For 85 minutes it was outstanding. Very stable defensively and always dangerous going forward,” analyzed the coach. In fact: Frankfurt threw out long stretches of the Barcelona offensive. Barça had 75 percent possession of the ball. The Blaugrana were only able to create a few goal chances.
Frankfurt, on the other hand, was different: The Hessians used the large spaces behind the opposing defense time and time again. “We defended incredibly well, always tried to double where we could and hurt Barcelona a lot with our switching game,” analyzed Sebastian Rode and added: “We could have scored more goals if we had played it better.”
Eintracht gave 15:10 shots on goal – including some top-class players. In fact, in addition to their three goals from Filip Kostic (4th/67th) and Rafael Borré (36th), Frankfurt had a number of other counterattack chances that they either played uncleanly or missed in front of the goal – as in the person of Ansgar Knauff (44th). or Jesper Lindstrom (58th). In the end, the wasted chances didn’t take revenge, even though Barcelona came back in injury time with goals from Busquets and Depay.
It was annoying that Barcelona had scored two more goals, said Rode. But Eintracht never had any doubts about winning this game. “In the end it was 3-2. So: It was perfect the way it was,” Trapp summed up with a laugh. As perfect as the tactical alignment of Frankfurt. Felicidades, Oliver Glasner.
3. Fans carry Eintracht to the Seville dream
Already at noon it became clear what FC Barcelona could expect in their own stadium. 30,000 Hessians traveled to the metropolis on the Mediterranean and celebrated a football festival hours before kick-off. “There were 30,000 spectators in the city and 25,000 here in the stadium,” praised sports director Markus Krösche on “RTL”.
Even before the kick-off, the 99,354-capacity Camp Nou was in Frankfurt’s hands. At least felt. “It started when we came onto the pitch to warm up. It gives you goosebumps,” Rode revealed after the game. An atmosphere that also stimulated Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona. “You want to tear yourself apart for the dream of winning here in Barcelona.”
And Barça coach Xavi was also overwhelmed by the atmosphere in Barcelona. “It felt like a final with even fans,” said the former world-class midfielder. Krösche summed up the atmosphere in Spain: “We turned the away game into a home game.”
When the Frankfurt fan chants began, some Spanish journalists in the arena apparently pulled out their cell phones to record the atmosphere.
At the beginning of the second round, the Barça block behind the goal remained empty – according to information from “RTL” a protest action against the mass of Frankfurters who apparently could get access to tickets. “Our boys are very resourceful and tried everything to get in,” explained Krösche.
For long stretches, the Hessians dominated the background noise in Europe’s largest stadium. When Barça celebrated a longer phase of ball circulation at the beginning of the second half, a piercing concert of whistles echoed through the Spanish night. “Oh, how beautiful it is” echoed again and again through the arena. Trapp said at the press conference after the game: “I thought I was in Frankfurt.”
“We are currently checking what happened. Of course we can’t control who buys how many tickets. But of course that helped,” said Xavi. The Frankfurt fans carried their team to victory against the apparently overwhelming club – and should also turn night into day after the game in Barcelona. Krösche announced: “You have to celebrate the festivals as they come.”
In May, the final party will take place in Seville’s Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium. If the Eintracht fans carry their team via West Ham to the south of Spain, they want to celebrate a football festival there too.
Trapp overwhelmed by the mood: “I thought I was in Frankfurt”
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