UEL: Frankfurt stun Barca to reach semi-finals despite late fightback
Eintracht Frankfurt produced one of the best nights of football in their history to shock Barcelona 3-2 at the Camp Nou, and progress to the Europa League semi-finals 4-3 on aggregate.
Barcelona got off to a nightmare start, as within two minutes, Frankfurt were awarded a penalty. Jesper Lindstrom was brought down in the box by Eric Garcia, who had his arms all over the Danish playmaker.
Filip Kostic made no mistake from the resulting spot-kick, placing the ball into the far corner beyond Marc Andre ter Stegen to put his side ahead on aggregate.
Nine minutes before half-time, Barcelona’s evening got even worse, as Frankfurt doubled their lead on the night, courtesy of a sublime long-range strike by Rafael Santos Borre.
The Colombian hit an effort from 25-yards into the top corner beyond the reach of Ter Stegen to give Frankfurt a 3-1 lead on aggregate.
The visitors then got their third midway through the second half, as Kostic grabbed his second of the game, placing a shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner of the net.
With ten minutes of stoppage time added, Barcelona got on the scoresheet, as a fantastic Sergio Busquets effort from outside the box found the far corner.
⏰ Final del partido
⚽ #BarçaEintracht (2-3) pic.twitter.com/2pBEkT24vb— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 14, 2022
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Then, with seconds left to go, Barcelona were awarded a late penalty, and Frankfurt’s Evan Ndicka received his second yellow card in a matter of minutes and was sent off for a foul in the area.
Despite Memphis Depay’s penalty just about crossing the line with the last kick of the match, it was too little, too late for Barcelona.
Frankfurt will now face West Ham United in the semi-finals.