Sports Weekly all-media reporter Huang Sijun
Anything is possible, the possibility has become a reality, and a miracle has been created - the "Camp Nou miracle" is no longer exclusive to Manchester United! Around 30,000 Frankfurt fans went to Barcelona, with around 25,000 of them flocking to the Camp Nou to witness one of the greatest victories in team history – not only, but the creators of this epic victory.
Frankfurt Sports Director Klescher exclaimed: "30,000 people came to the city, 25,000 people came to the stadium, it's exciting! Our fans were resourceful and they tried everything they could to get into the field. We turned the away game into a home game. Exciting! Barca coach Xavi said: "The atmosphere is like a cup final in the middle of the ground, which does not help us. It feels like the fans on both sides are five or five. I'm not making excuses, I'm just disappointed. ”
The white team that captured camp Nou was not Real Madrid, but Eintracht Frankfurt!
3-2 ended 15 consecutive official matches unbeaten, less than four weeks ago also away from home 4-0 real Madrid Barca (La Liga no. 2), plus the last round also eliminated Real Betis (La Liga No. 5), currently only 9th in the Bundesliga table "Eagles" not only once again carrying the Bundesliga "European flag", but also in front of La Liga teams and fans, to regain the face lost due to Bayern's elimination of Villarreal (La Liga 7th) in the Champions League quarter-final two days ago.
After two seasons, Eintracht Frankfurt once again reached the final four of the Europa League. Captain Rod, who joined Eintracht Frankfurt at the age of 19 and returned in the summer of 2018 after two stops at Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, proudly said: "I am very happy. We performed very well. When we warmed up before the game to see our fans, we all got goosebumps. 10 years ago, we were still playing in the Bundesliga and now we have reached the semi-finals of the Europa League for the second time. ”
Fortunately, I kept Kistic!
The two-legged match against Barcelona was the "Battle of the Century" in the eyes of Frankfurters, and the "first half" of this "Battle of the Century" was 1-1. On the eve of the start of the "second half", a pre-match party was held in Frankfurt at the open-air museum "Spagna Village", which was attended by 600 guests. At the party, Frankfurt President Peter Fischer gave a speech that will eventually go down in history: "No expert would say: Frankfurt qualified. You can read from the reports of the Spanish media: no chance! Odds say: No chance! You won't get any bargain out of Barcelona. Everybody said: You don't have to go there at all, we're going to be eliminated. But this is absolutely not going to happen! We will seize opportunities that we will not get. ”
Frankfurt president Peter Fischer "had a party" with fans in the center of Barcelona before the game.
The last time Frankfurt held a pre-match party of comparable size was on the eve of the 2018 German Cup final against Bayern. It was precisely because of the upset 3-1 victory in that final that Frankfurt was able to return to Europe after a gap of 4 years and continue to write a brilliant chapter in Europe. In the 2018/19 season, Frankfurt first played a staggering 6-game victory in the "death group" with Lazio and Marseille, becoming the first German team to score all 18 points in the European group stage, and then kicked out Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Benfica in the knockout stage, and only exchanged penalties until the semi-finals to lose to Chelsea, who eventually won the championship. The "Frontcourt Trident" of Jovic, Alai and Rebić (plus Kostic, who runs the entire left side), as well as the Eintracht Frankfurt fans who always follow the team to the north, are famous for this.
After that historic season, the "frontcourt trident" was completely dismantled (Jovic returned from Real Madrid on loan in the winter window last season), and even Andre Silva, who joined from AC Milan in exchange with Rebić, left after wearing the Bundesliga silver boots last season. Even Costic, at the beginning of the season, sought to leave the "little temple" and wanted to switch to Lazio, but was eventually forced to stay in an unpleasant way. Fortunately, the sports director (Bobic) and the head coach (Hürter) have been poached and the squad has been severely weakened Eintracht Frankfurt has retained this "thigh", otherwise there would be no magical Camp Nou night, and the Serbian winger should now be glad to be "stranded" here, otherwise he would not have the opportunity to score twice at Camp Nou and write the most colorful stroke of his career.
Kostic set the win with a penalty in the 4th minute.
Less than three minutes into the opening, Linström was knocked down by Eric Garciala to win the penalty when he grabbed the penalty spot inside the penalty area, and Kostic's powerful left-footed low shot penetrated the bottom right corner of the goal, laying a solid foundation for this incredible victory. Colombian striker Borre, whose shooting skills were not superb, rewrote the score to 2-0 in the 36th minute with an irreparable long-range world wave. It was just his second Europa League goal and his ninth club game goal of the season. In the 67th minute, Kamada received the ball in the middle of the road and passed the ball diagonally to the "Kostic area", the Serbian winger still decisively took a powerful left-foot low shot and accurately hit the far corner of the goal in the case of Dest's timely forward blocking, making Ter Stegen whipped long, and the score became an incredible 3-0!
At the beginning of October last year, Kostic was in the same area, with the same way of shooting, to break the goal of another German international, Neuer, helping Frankfurt end bayern's nine-game winning streak 2-1 away. Almost all Bundesliga opponents and fans are well aware that once Krstic has the ball on the left side of the penalty area, no matter how small the angle, even if the defender has been quickly pasted, he can complete a high-quality shot or cross with his left foot. The Serbian winger doesn't need a lot of leg swing range and space, nor does he need to help the runner, his left foot makes the opponent invincible. When you meet an opponent who is not familiar with his technical characteristics, it is even more elegant.
Kostic's precise grazing made Ter Stegen sigh.
It was not until the last 20 minutes, as the Frankfurt players were exhausted, Barca, who was forced to the edge of the cliff, began to frantically counterattack and scored three times to break Trapp's goal, but Busquets was first blown off by VAR due to slight offside after the first goal. Immediately before the finale, Ndeka was fouled by luc De Jong when elbowing luke de Jong as he scrambled for the top of the penalty area, and both yellows and one red were expelled, and Eintracht Frankfurt paid the price of red at the main centre-back in both legs. Although Trapp struggled to pounce on Memphis' penalty to the bottom edge of the crossbar, the ball bounced off just over the goal line, and it was more than 10 minutes in stoppage time. Fortunately, the referee immediately blew the final whistle, and Trapp and his teammates could finally celebrate the victory of the weak, which will not only go down in the annals of Eintracht Frankfurt, but also in the annals of German football.
Super level play + style phase gram
After the first leg, Trapp said, "If we don't believe we can do it, then we don't have to go there [Camp Nou]." "Now, he and his teammates have really done it. Trapp, who took over the captain's armband after Rod replaced it, was thrilled, "Yes, I... Honestly, no one would have expected that. Everyone thought Barcelona would shoot us out of the pitch. Opponents will have a high rate of possession, we have to take advantage of opportunities, and today we are very efficient. When you're 2-0 in Barcelona, it becomes difficult to concede a goal, so we go and try to score a third goal. ”
Borre, who doesn't score a high goal, scored a world wave.
Indeed, Eintracht Frankfurt played at an extra-high level in the second half of this "battle of the century", especially in the weak link of shooting. After andre Silva left, Frankfurt has no stable goal exit point, no player has scored in double figures so far this season, and Daichi Kamada, who has scored the most goals in the Europa League, has only scored four goals. And counting this game, Frankfurt has only scored three or more goals in five games in the third tier this season, and only in the Europa League has had such a prolific performance when they beat Olympiacos 3-1 at home in the third round of the group stage.
However, Frankfurt's super level performance is not pure luck, but is based on the overall performance of the same super level. Both in the first and second leg, Eintracht Frankfurt created more shooting opportunities than Barca and more obvious scoring opportunities. In both legs, Frankfurt completed 16 shots on goal, while Barca combined had only 17 shots in both legs. Eintracht Frankfurt had a total of 12 shots on target, seven of which were in the second leg, just one less than Barca's two legs combined. Not only was the attacking efficiency surprisingly high, but the defence led by Hintereg was also extremely tight, and the suspension of the main right centre-back Tutta did not have the major impact imagined. Frankfurt had only 34% of the ball in the first leg and as low as 26% in the second leg, which shows how perfectLyglass's team performed in the crucial part of the transition from defense to attack.
Frankfurt 'thigh' Kostic scored twice and played the pinnacle of his career.
As early as the time when bayern suffered two defeats in the group stage, Barca completely exposed the overall style of the ball, especially the problem of poor defensive ability to resist blows. Although Xavi has made adjustments to the team's tactical style, and has greatly improved its strength in the winter window by bringing in Aubameyang, Ferran Torres and Adama Traore, it is the forward players who are reinforced, and the defense has not improved substantially. Frankfurt is a team that is good at dealing with pass-and-control teams (many victories over Bayern in recent years are no accident), do not need to control the ball (this season's away win over Bayern has only 32% of the possession), but pay attention to the rapid conversion of the team, the style can just restrain barca, which is far above its own card strength.
Coupled with the belief that the weak win over the strong, and the day when the foot wind is super smooth, the "Eagle" is completely understandable. Of course, all this is inseparable from the support of the fans. Frankfurt boss Glasner said: "Everyone who came here today is very happy and will not forget this night. This emotional orgasm, you can feel in sports, in football. It's something you can't buy with the money of the whole world, and it's wonderful. ”
May not be able to compete in Europe next season? Then go and win the championship!
Frankfurt's yet another great European journey has only just reached its climax. Trapp said: "We are now in the semi-finals and want to go as far as we can. The next round will be just as difficult, just as hard to play. We've proven we won't hide from any opponents and there's no doubt we want to reach the final now. Coincidentally, Frankfurt is heading to London in the semi-finals. Two years ago, Frankfurt and Chelsea were inseparable in 210 minutes (1-1 in both legs), playing five rounds in a penalty shoot-out at Stamford Bridge before losing 3-4. This time, Eintracht Frankfurt's opponents have been replaced by West Ham United, who are currently ranked 6th in the Premier League, and will be the first to come.
Eintracht Frankfurt players celebrate the historic victory with the fans who "captured" the Camp Nou stand.
However, there is a bit of surprise and puzzling, extremely dependent on the support of fans Frankfurt, this season's home results are actually quite bad, only 4 wins, 5 draws and 6 losses in the league, in the home table in the bottom 3, away to 5th with 6 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses. In the middle of the two legs against Barca, Frankfurt lost 1-2 at home to Freiburg, and after the winter break, they lost five times at home in the seven leagues, winning only one game. In the Europa League, Frankfurt also has a better away record than home, not only against Barca, but also in the last round of elimination of Betis (the second leg of the home lost 0-1 in 90 minutes, extra time to dramatically kill), the group stage is 1 win 2 at home, 2 wins and 1 draw away.
Not only did the home and away results reverse, Eintracht Frankfurt always lost points unnecessarily in the league while soaring in the European games, resulting in only 9th place after 29 rounds, and there was a 5-point gap with the European zone. The reason why the league results are unstable is that the team's strength is limited, especially the thickness of the bench is seriously insufficient. Glazner was less fond of rotation during his time at Wolfsburg and was even more pronounced after coming to Frankfurt this season. Even if the two-sided battle continues, the Austrian coach rarely rotates, and the two weeks against Betis have used the same starting lineup for four consecutive games! This time at Camp Nou, he also only replaced Tutta with red card suspension with Almami Toure, replaced Sou with a knee injury with Yakić, and the only active rotation was Kamada Daichi to replace Heyug. You can even predict that when you visit the Berlin Union on Sunday, the exhausted Frankfurt will most likely lose points again.
The history-making Glasna is both a rare opportunity and a serious challenge.
On the one hand, Frankfurt is getting closer to reaching the European final and winning the cup after 1980, and on the other hand, it is increasingly dangerous to miss out on The European competition as last season (2019/20 is the end of the season with 9th place). If Eintracht Frankfurt is not present in next season's European representatives, it will undoubtedly be a huge loss for the overall lack of competitiveness in the Bundesliga. If so, Bundesliga officials might consider issuing Eintracht Frankfurt with a long-standing European wild card.
Of course, don't forget that winning the Europa League will give you a ticket to next season's Champions League group stage, which is no fool's errand for Eintracht Frankfurt. For the Leipzig RB, which beat Atalanta 2-0 away and thus advanced to 3-1 on aggregate, the Europa League final and the victory were also their goals. Following a historic 2019/20 victory in the Champions League semi-finals under Nagelsmann, Red Bull is now once again a European final four under the leadership of "Na Shuai classmate" Tedesco, defending the Bundesliga's European honours with Eintracht Frankfurt. Midfielder Kemper said: "We are very excited to reach the semi-finals. When you have the opportunity to play in the semi-finals, you naturally want to reach the finals. ”
Unstoppable Nkunku scored two goals, and Leipzig eliminated Atalanta and also reached the semi-finals of the Europa League.
In the semi-finals, Leipzig will face the Su Super League Ban ba rangers who eliminated Borussia Dortmund in the play-offs. Since Bayern and Borussia Dortmund met in the 2013 Champions League final, there has not been a Bundesliga civil war in the European final, can "Red Bull" and "Eagles" meet this year? Oh yes, when Frankfurt won the 1980 Confederations Cup, the final opponent was the same team as the same country, Borussia Mönchengladbach.