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In the course of 90 minutes, Barcelona went from Europa League favorite to a second humiliating elimination from European competition this season.
After a 1–1 draw in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals, German side Eintracht Frankfurt came into the Camp Nou and stunned Barcelona with a 3–2 (4–3 aggregate) win.
The Barça loss comes five months after a 3–0 defeat at Bayern Munich in its Champions League group stage finale saw the Spanish giant miss out on the knockout stages for the first time since 2003–04.
Filip Kostić led the way for Frankfurt with two goals in a night to remember at the Camp Nou. The Serbian winger opened the scoring in the fourth minute when he converted a penalty for Frankfurt, which currently sits in ninth place in the Bundesliga.
Rafael Borré doubled the first-half lead with a thunderous volley in the 36th minute that sent Barcelona into halftime facing a serious crisis.
Frankfurt continued to pile it on in the 67th minute with Kostić’s second goal of the night to make it 3–0, but Barcelona would muster an attempt at a comeback.
Sergio Busquets appeared to give Barcelona some hope with his goal in the 84th minute, but a VAR review ruled him offside. But the Barça veteran pulled one back in the 91st with a stunning half-volley.
In the 11th minute of second-half stoppage time, a Memphis Depay penalty saw the Frankfurt lead cut to one. But the referee signaled for full-time right after the kickoff, denying Barcelona one last chance at an equalizer.
While the Champions League semifinals features two sides from both the Premier League and La Liga, the Bundesliga will be the main actors in the Europa League with RB Leipzig joining Frankfurt in the semifinals. Frankfurt will take on West Ham while RB Leipzig will face Scottish side Rangers.
