If Eintracht Frankfurt and Sporting Lisbon play a round of 16 participant on Tuesday evening, many seats in the stadium will probably remain free.
The floodlights illuminate the empty Estadio José Alvalade.
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Moritz Kreilinger reports from Lisbon
At least since 30,000 Frankfurters took the venerable Camp Nou in Barcelona in April of this year, the reputation of Eintracht supporters in Europe has preceded it. The result from Barcelona is well known: the 3-2 win in the quarter-finals meant the big favorites were out and paved the way for the SGE to later win the Europa League title. There is no big favorite on Tuesday evening, but Sporting Lisbon wants to avoid a similar scenario at a high price.
The Estadio José Alvalade north of the center of the Portuguese capital can hold 50,095 spectators – but there will not be that many in the final of the round of 16 of the premier class. While Eintracht was able to sell the more than 2,500 tickets they were entitled to without any problems and were far from being able to serve all interested parties, the rush from the Portuguese side was limited. Sporting was not able to sell more than 16,000 tickets by the day of the game.
Thousands of Frankfurters would take the tickets with a kiss, but Sporting apparently prefers to forego income in the six-figure range instead of handing over its stadium to Frankfurt. The lesson from Barcelona. Tickets outside the guest block are only sold to club members. When asked about this, SBU coach Oliver Glasner responded briefly at the press conference, which started more than 90 minutes later than planned after the plane was delayed: “That’s not my problem. I’m concentrating on my task tomorrow, I’m blinding everything else out.”
Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp went a little further. “It’s true that we benefited from that in Barcelona. But we’ve also had other games where there weren’t 30,000 in the away block. We’re also capable without spectators and support, which is obviously important for us, when To get the maximum out of the team. It’s a pity in some ways, of course. But it’s nothing that will affect us anywhere,” said the vice-captain before the final game of the group stage.
