FC Barcelona are out of the UEFA Europa League after a shocking 3-2 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt at home. The Spanish giants had settled for a 1-1 draw in Germany in the first leg which meant they are out from the competition losing 4-3 on aggregate.
Barcelona were the favourites to win the tie at home despite of settling for a 1-1 draw in Germany in the first leg. the 20,000 faithful fans in the stadium were not expecting such a turn around coming from the Frankfurt side who managed to take the game away from them.
Midfielders Gavi and Pedri were also back in the squad for contention. The match started with Frankfurt taking the lead in the fourth minute after Filip Kostic’s penalty was converted after a careless foul from Eric Garcia.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a decent opportunity to head Barca level in the game. However, Rafael Borre doubled Eintracht’s lead with a thunderbolt minutes later. The Colombian forward was played into the left flank by Kostic and scored a brilliant goal by cutting inside and slotting it in the back of the net. It was becoming a bad day for Barca when Pedri also couldn’t come back on the field for the second half due to an injury and was replaced by Frenkie de Jong.
Later in the 67th minute, Kostic’s quick thinking after a throw-in made it 3-0 on the night and more or less dented the home team’s hopes of coming back in the game as well.
Luuk de Jong was put into the game in the later stages as well to try and push things quickly. However, his physical presence could only help the team in coming up with two late goals and ended the tie at 3-2 on the night.
Sergio Busquets could’ve made it level on aggregate but his backheel was ruled for offside.
(Inputs from IANS)