From Barcelona to London: Now it’s getting harder for the Frankfurt fans

As of 4:42 p.m | Reading time: 4 minutes

Nfter a voluntary breakfast at lunchtime, the Eintracht Frankfurt team met on Good Friday for a casual run on the beach. She was still in Barcelona. The city where she had written club history the night before. And a bit of football history too.

Eintracht won 3-2 in the Europa League quarter-finals at FC Barcelona, ​​although it was even 3-0 until the final phase. The Bundesliga club managed 16:10 shots on goal in the stadium of the tournament favorites, in which all German teams except FC Bayern regularly got beaten up, and sometimes even the. However, the memory of the night at Camp Nou will be dominated by a different number: 25,000. That’s how many Frankfurters were among the almost 80,000 visitors in Europe’s largest football stadium, which only two weeks earlier had seen a world record for spectators at a women’s football game. And now one for away fans.

“I’ll take this mood with me until I’m one floor higher,” summarized Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner. With you to heaven, with you to eternity. Contrary to his habit, the Austrian took part in the after the final whistle

The followers’ jubilation rituals, which lasted at least half an hour. First they had to get together from all the corners of the stadium where the eagles – as the Eintracht players call themselves after their heraldic animal – had just found their nests. In 1960 they made it to the final of the European Cup and in a 3-7 win against Real Madrid they were part of one of the most famous performances in football history. In 1980 they won the UEFA Cup. From now on, the Easter evening in Barcelona completes the holy trinity of the club’s history.

Glasner’s excellent match schedule

Glasner aptly spoke of a “symbiosis” between the team and the fans, which made the historic success possible. Without his excellent match plan, the superior physique of his eleven and a lot more class than they show in everyday life, the semi-finals would not have been possible. Without the massive presence of the supporters, which Barça already deranged from the warm-up, but certainly not. And so, in the shimmering night of the Camp Nou, a year-long process condensed.

When the Europa League anthem composed by Eintracht Frankfurt fan (!) Michael Kadelbach sounds, the high Bundesliga average has been transformed into superheroism for years. The fans also accept the second competition, which has been ridiculed elsewhere, as if it were still 1980. When they made it back to the semi-finals for the first time in 2019 and only failed on penalties at top club Chelsea, unseen crowds followed Eintracht around the continent. Now the ménage à trois between team, fans and competition culminated in an “evening of pride and pure joy”, as Kevin Trapp put it. The polyglot goalkeeper, who overcame his personal Camp Nou trauma of 1: 6 in the Champions League round of 16 with Paris St. Germain in 2017, was also able to confirm this in impeccable Spanish: “Muy emocionante” was all that, “muy lindo “.

Of course, the locals saw things differently. Less because of insomnia, a sea of ​​beer cans and the stench of urine – as residents of a tourist stronghold, they are involuntarily hardened. However, the balance of power at the Camp Nou caused perplexity and a downright feeling of humiliation. “A disgrace” was the verdict of all Barça supporters from President Joan Laporta onwards, who felt strangers in their own stadium and, depending on the mood of the unfamiliar neighbors in the stands, frightened to the point of giving up their seats. Barça’s ultras protested at the start of the second half by staying away for ten minutes and the same question was murmured after the game was over: how could this happen?

How the people of Frankfurt got the many tickets

The people are indignant, the association promised detailed processing. At first glance, the reasons seem varied. Where in Spain the fans traditionally travel less, the police calculated “only” with 15,000 Germans, despite reports about the upcoming mass migration. It was also about this strange Europa League: many locals did not want to postpone the Easter departure to the coast, mountains and family, which is traditionally scheduled for Thursday evening. And certainly not pay the inflated prices that Internet ticket services – including the club’s own –, tourism agencies, but also Barça’s own season ticket holders on the black market. In the end, the game with a divided stadium “felt like a cup final”, as coach Xavi remarked.

For the people of Frankfurt, their favorite competition goes even further. Once they got their brains back on track after a long night of partying, fans will have started looking around for London tickets and accommodation. The next opponent is West Ham United, who, after decades of unsuccessful success since winning the European Cup in 1965, feel on a similar mission to Eintracht. So it will be more difficult with the tickets. And with an English-German duel and the robust reputation of West Ham supporters, it is simply unthinkable that the stands can mix like they did in Barcelona. Only, it seems just as clear: if there is a path, the eagles will find it.