Barcelona flies out of Europa League


Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 10:58 PM• Mart van Mourik • Last update: 23:08

Barcelona were knocked out by Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarterfinals of the Europa League on Thursday evening. After the 1-1 draw in Germany, the powerless team of trainer Xavi lost 2-3 in the Camp Nou. Remarkably enough, there were at least 20,000 fans of Eintracht in the stadium, while UEFA had officially made only 5,000 tickets available for the visitors. It was the first defeat of los Azulgrana after an unbeaten run of 15 games. The team of coach Oliver Glasner will meet West Ham United in the semi-final.

Xavi had not made a base for Sergiño Dest, who was back in the squad for the first time since the Europa League match against Galatasaray on March 17 after hamstring complaints. Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong and Frenkie de Jong also had to start as substitutes. The latter was still ill the morning before the meeting and was not fit enough to play from the first whistle. At Eintracht, Sam Lammers had to settle for a reserve role, just like in the first game.

Things went wrong for Barcelona early in the game. In the third minute of play, Eric García pulled Jesper Lindström down in the box, after which referee Artur Soares Dias awarded a penalty to the visitors. Former FC Groningen striker Filip Kostic took his responsibility and shot in flawlessly: 0-1. Six minutes later, the Catalans had their first serious chance of the game. Ousmane Dembélé delivered a custom cross to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who narrowly missed the goal with a header.

After a similar phase, Barça ran into even deeper problems ten minutes before the halftime signal. Rafael Borré was given plenty of space in midfield and made the advance towards the sixteen. At about 25 meters from the enemy goal, he suddenly lashed out and the striker found the top corner with his shot: 0-2. The home team longed for the break, as Eintracht became life-threatening twice in the first company. First goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen saved on a volley from Kristijan Jakic; a few minutes later, Borré shot just over.

With a painful deficit, Xavi had to deal with another setback, as Pedri had to leave the field with a hamstring injury. The not completely fit Frenkie de Jong thus came within the lines. Shortly after the restart, Aubameyang came close to scoring the goal, but the striker was several centimeters short of taking advantage of Dembele’s cross. On the other side, Borré was given the opportunity to further expand the score on Lindström’s pass; however, the striker ran into Ter Stegen. The 0-3 fell in the 67th minute of play. Daichi Kamada served Kostic on the left side of the penalty area, after which the attacker then hit with a diagonal slide.

With Dest, who had come in for Óscar Mingueza, and Luuk de Jong (Eric García) in the squad, Xavi hoped to force a breakthrough. However, Barça failed to make it through the defensive wall of Eintracht. Five minutes before the end of regular time, Sergio Busquets thought he could score a goal after a pass from Frenkie de Jong. The video footage showed that the goalscorer moved into an offside position, resulting in the goal being disallowed. One remontada was no longer in it for Barcelona, ​​even with substitute Depay on the field.

However, Barcelona still came very close to the equalizer. The goal of honor was made by Busquets, who scored effectively from outside the penalty area: 1-3. In the tenth minute of the stoppage time, Depay even scored the connection goal from a penalty kick, which was awarded after a foul on Luuk de Jong, but immediately afterwards the arbiter whistled: 2-3.