The first legs of the Europa League quarter finals took place on Thursday night with no shortage of action or talking points.
Barcelona are the favourites to win this season’s competition having truly hit top form under new coach Xavi Hernandez in recent months, with the Catalan giants taking on Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt. There was plenty of British interest too with both West Ham and Rangers in action, taking on Lyon and Braga respectively.
There was an enticing game elsewhere as German outfit RB Leipzig played out a 1-1 draw at home to Serie A high-fliers Atalanta. Mirror Football takes a look at the five talking points from Thursday’s games, with goals and red cards in the main games.
Barca subs make the difference
For most of the opening hour in Germany, Barcelona were firmly second-best against Eintracht Frankfurt – who are languishing in ninth in the Bundesliga. The home side played with an energy and intensity that the Catalan giants struggled to cope with.
Ansgar Knauff’s rasping effort gave Frankfurt a deserved lead just after the break after a first half in which they missed a series of glorious opportunities with Djibril Sow most wasteful – blasting wide when well-placed inside the area.
Have Your Say! Are Barcelona favourites to win the Europa League? Tell us what you think here.
Yet just after the hour mark, Barca introduced Frenkie de Jong and Ousmane Dembele with both players involved in the glorious build-up of the equalising goal four minutes after their introduction. Both were involved in a scintillating one-touch passing move which cut open Frankfurt’s defence and allowed Ferran Torres to run through on goal and slot home the equaliser.
Frankfurt keep tie alive
Due to their struggles in the Bundesliga this campaign, Frankfurt were firm underdogs against in-form Barca – who have not lost a game in La Liga since early December. Yet the German side have every chance of causing an upset in next week’s tie at Camp Nou.
They had to hold on a little in the final 15 minutes due to late pressure from the Blaugrana which was ramped up after a red card for the home side’s defender Tuta – who was dismissed after a second bookable offence. Yet despite plenty of eye-catching link-up play in the final third, Barca struggled to regularly breach the Frankfurt defence.
Oliver Glasner’s side have already won in Spain this year after impressively winning 2-1 away at Real Betis in the previous round. Betis are just four points shy of Barca in La Liga, so Frankfurt will feel confident they can land another knockout blow next week.
Hammers fury at red
West Ham were enjoying their biggest game of the campaign to date with a challenging quarter final match-up against French giants Lyon. The game was finely balanced in the opening half and played to the backdrop of a tremendous atmosphere at the London Stadium, but a moment just before the break turned the mood.
Hammers defender Aaron Cresswell was shown a straight red card after bringing his arm across visiting forward Moussa Dembele, who had been running through on goal – but appeared to be running at an angle wide of goal. While the decision may have proved technically correct, it was remarkably soft and, understandably, infuriated the home side.
Dembele’s wink to the Lyon bench after the incident did little to soothe the sense of injustice among the home fans. So furious was David Moyes with the incident, that he berated German official Felix Zwayer on his way off the pitch at the break – for which the Scotsman was booked.
Ndombele writes the script
Jarrod Bowen gave 10-man West Ham the early lead in the second to take the roof off the London Stadium but it was always likely to be a matter of time until the visitors made their numerical advantage count.
Lyon slowly began to dominate possession and the territory in the game, so it was no great surprise that they equalised midway through the second half. The frustrating thing for the Hammers was the identity of the scorer: Tanguy Ndombele. The central midfielder is currently back on loan at the Ligue 1 club from Tottenham – for whom he struggled since joining in 2019 – but was on hand to tap home after Alphonse Areola could not clear a low cross into the area.
West Ham held on for a draw, which in the circumstances was not a bad outcome to take to France ahead of next week’s second leg.
Gers downed in Braga
Rangers have enjoyed a remarkable European campaign under Giovanni van Bronckhorst and believed they were handed a kind quarter-final draw against Braga – Portugal’s fourth strongest side.
Yet the Gers have struggled domestically and have been usurped by fierce rivals Celtic – who won at Ibrox on Sunday - at the top of the standings. While there would have been hopes that they could have used that frustration to rally in Portugal, it was another low-key performance that has given them plenty of work to do for next week’s return leg in Glasgow.
The home side thought they’d taken the lead midway through the first half but Andre Horta’s goal was retrospectively disallowed by VAR, but former Barcelona B striker Abel Ruiz did give them the lead five minutes before the break. Rangers will still fancy themselves to rescue the tie in the second leg but this was another underwhelming and disappointing showing.
