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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Jack Rosser

West Ham confident of avoiding Barcelona ticket disaster for Eintracht Frankfurt clash in Europa League

West Ham are confident that no Eintracht Frankfurt fans will get into the home end of the London Stadium for their Europa League showdown next week, after around 30,000 German supporters took over the Camp Nou.

Despite away fans only being allocated 5,000 tickets, thousands more Frankfurt supporters acquired seats to watch their side sensationally knock out Barcelona in Spain last week.

The Bundesliga side were roared on to a shock 3-2 win to seal a 4-3 aggregate triumph and set up a Europa League semi-final meeting with West Ham, who overcame Lyon.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he was “embarrassed and ashamed” by the incident and manager Xavi said they felt “robbed in their own home”.

West Ham are confident that the right security arrangements will be in place when they face Frankfurt in the first leg next Thursday.

Around 30,000 Frankfurt fans were inside the Camp Nou for their shock win over Barcelona (Getty Images)

The club expect most home tickets to sell out to season-ticket holders and the game is not expected to go on general sale, stopping Frankfurt fans from buying tickets in the home end.

There is potential for trouble around the tie after West Ham and Frankfurt fans clashed when their sides played last-16 ties in Seville during the same week last month.

Frankfurt played Real Betis in the Spanish city a night before West Ham lost 1-0 to Sevilla. After the Frankfurt game, a number of German fans targeted West Ham supporters in a bar, with bottles thrown before police intervened and fired rubber bullets.

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