Favourites Barcelona were sensationally knocked out of the Europa League by Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals on Friday, while West Ham United and Rangers joined RB Leipzig in qualifying for the last four.
Serbian international winger Filip Kostic scored twice either side of a Rafael Santos Borre strike at the Camp Nou for Frankfurt, who survived a late fightback to win 3-2 on the night and 4-3 on aggre-gate.
Sergio Busquets scored a late consolation before Memphis Depay’s even later penalty for Barcelona but Eintracht held on, to the delight of the estimated 30,000 German supporters who made it into the Camp Nou despite away fans only being allocated 5,000 tickets.
Barca were expecting huge backing at the sta-dium and president Joan Laporta said he was “em-barrassed and ashamed”.
“Frankly what happened today makes me feel embarrassed and ashamed. There were many fans of the other team and not many of ours,” Laporta told Barca TV. “I’m very sorry for what has happened. What we can avoid are certain situations but as of now, we will have to be much more strict. We can’t allow these situations to happen.”
Coach Xavi Hernandez called the situation a “miscalculation” and said it did not help his side, who suffered their first defeat in 16 matches in all competitions.
“I’ve tried to tell the players that the important thing is what happens on the pitch, but logically this could have affected us. It’s very clear,” Xavi told a news conference. “We’ve tried to focus on the game and we’ve not been good. It has nothing to do with one thing and the other. It’s not an excuse. It hasn’t helped us, but on the pitch, we haven’t been good, and we haven’t competed.”
Barca’s recent revival under Xavi had been re-markable but this defeat means they have won just once at home all season in Europe, and their cam-paign is now set to end without silverware.
Eintracht, meanwhile, go through to their second Europa League semi-final in four seasons, having lost on penalties to Chelsea at the same stage in 2019.
After conceding three penalties in their weekend win over Levante, Barca fell behind to another spot-kick inside four minutes against Eintracht, as Kostic converted after a foul by Eric Garcia to the delight of the enormous away support.
The visitors scored again in the 36th minute as Colombian forward Borre fired high into the net from range, and Kostic’s low finish into the far corner made it 3-0 midway through the second half.
Busquets had a late goal disallowed for offside before he found the net with a fantastic strike from 20 metres in the first minute of injury time.—AFP
