FC Barcelona has only won one game at home in European competitions this season, but the culé team relies on the support of the Camp Nou to defeat the German Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday (1-1 in the first leg) and get into the semifinals of the Europa League.
The tie arrives open to the Barça fiefdom after a second-half goal from Ferran Torres balanced the balance after Ansgar Knauff’s opening goal in Germany.
– “Winning and playing well” –
“This is Barcawe have the obligation to win play well, imagine what Barça is like, it’s not worth it for us to win 1-0 in the 90th minute”, said coach Xavi Hernández. “Barça is the most difficult club in the world, the most demanding, to win by playing well” .
But Barcelona have only been able to offer their fans one victory at the Camp Nou this season, in a total of five games between the Champions League and Europa League. It was against modest Dynamo kyiv (1-0) in the group stage of the Champions League.
An elimination from the highest European competition that had the consolation for Xavi Hernández’s team of qualifying for at least the Europa League, tournament in which they had not participated since 2004. But neither has Barça managed to win at home against rivals from a European ‘second row’ (a draw with Napoli and a goalless draw with Galatasaray in two ties that they won with two wins away from home).
Despite the loss of the double value of away goals, Barcelona’s current form makes it a favorite to advance to quarters. Xavi’s team has gone 15 games in a row without losing, a streak that has placed them second in the league. He also has seven consecutive victories, with the Dembélé-Aubameyang duo in great shape.
Although it seems unlikely that Barcelona must win at all costs the Europa League to get a ticket to the next Champions League -as was once feared- the Catalans want to at least lift a title this season, and their only real option is to win the final on May 18 in Seville.
– 30,000 German fans –
Eintracht arrive in the middle of the Bundesliga and have not won any of their last five games, but they have only lost once against a Spanish team, it was against Real Madrid in the 1960 European Cup final.
Besides, will have the support of some 30,000 fans who plan to travel to Barcelona. “We will go there and beat them,” declared Eintracht sporting director Markus Kroesche.
The winner will be measured with Lyon or West Ham in semifinals.
Both teams will meet in France after having also sealed the first leg with a 1-1 in London, where David Moyes’s West Ham endured the entire second half with a man less due to the expulsion of Aaron Cresswell.
On the other side of the frame Scottish Rangers must come back from a 1-0 loss against Portuguese Braga. The winner of that tie will face the German Leipzig or the Italian Atalanta in the semifinals.
– Schedule of the quarterfinals from the Europa League (hello Bolivian):
(12:45) Atalanta (ITA) – RB Leipzig (GER) (1-1)
(15:00) Barcelona (ESP) – Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) (1-1)
(15:00) Lyon (FRA) – West Ham United (ENG) (1-1)
(15:00) Rangers (SCO) – Braga (POR) (0-1)
