Thousands of disgruntled Barcelona ultras walked out of the Camp Nou during their Europa League quarter-final with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Xavi’s side were the overwhelming favourites to book their place in the final four, but found themselves 2-0 down to their Bundesliga opponents during a nightmare opening 45 minutes. Filip Kostic put the visitors in front from the penalty spot after just two minutes, following an Eric Garcia foul.
And things went from bad to worse for the Blaugrana, when 10 minutes before the half-time break, Rafael Borre scored one of the goals of the season. Picking up the ball inside the Barca half, the Frankfurt forward proceeded to smash the ball into Andre ter Stegen’s top corner from 35 yards.
Borre’s goal silenced much of the Camp Nou and gave the La Liga giants a mountain to climb in the second half. And Barca were forced to play the first 10 minutes after the break without their most vocal supporters, with thousands not returning to their seats behind the goal.
The section of fans, known as Grada d’Animacion took in the opening minutes of the second period from within the confines of the stadium, in protest at the Frankfurt invasion of the Catalan giants’ stadium.
It is estimated 30,000 visiting supporters had made their way to the city, with the vast majority managing to find tickets to enter the stadium itself. Thousands of season ticket holders had already decided to not honour their match ticket due to the celebration of Easter.
And many of those appear to have sold their seats to away fans with the Camp Nou awash with the white shirts of Frankfurt.
In bizarre scenes, both away goals were greeted by the kind of roar usually reserved for Barcelona goals, such was the makeup of the near capacity crowd. Pictures circulating on social media showed the fans watching the game inside the concourse, before making their way back pitchside after 55 minutes.
Upon their arrival, they instantly attempted to get behind their side in order to force what swiftly became a very unlikely comeback. In matters on the field, Xavi, who has overseen 11 wins from Barca’s last 15 games, opted to withdraw Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whilst still chasing two goals to force extra time.
The former Arsenal skipper has enjoyed a positive start to his career at the club, but looked off the pace on the night and was replaced by Wolves loanee Adama Traore. But any hopes of a Barca comeback were completely extinguished with less than 25 minutes to go when Kostic scored the third to send a third of the stadium into absolute raptures.
They are now destined to face West Ham in the last four, who also ran out into a 3-0 lead in their away leg, against Ligue 1’s Lyon. The Hammers, came into their second leg with the scores deadlocked at 1-1, but after standing up to some early pressure, goals from Craig Dawson, Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen put them in cruise control.
