The Hessians fought 1-1 at home against FC Barcelona in the first leg of the quarter-finals and can therefore continue to speculate on reaching the semi-finals. The duels between RB Leipzig and Atalanta Bergamo and West Ham and Olympique Lyon also ended 1-1. Braga won 1-0 at home against Glasgow Rangers. The second leg will increase next Thursday.
The 48,000 spectators in Frankfurt saw passionate hosts from the start. Djibril Sow found a top chance in the sixth minute, but put the ball wide of the goal from around ten meters. Barca became dangerous for the first time in the 17th minute – after a mistake by the otherwise strong Martin Hinteregger, who played through, Eintracht goalie Kevin Trapp blocked a shot by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the side netting. In the 40th minute, referee Srdan Jovanovic had already decided on a penalty for Frankfurt after a duel between Sergio Busquets and Rafael Borre, but took the penalty back after viewing the video images, to the annoyance of Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner.
Eintracht took the lead they deserved at this point in the 48th minute. Barcelona fended off a corner too short, Ansgar Knauff took the measure from the sixteen limit and pocketed the ball to make it 1-0. After that, the visitors realized the seriousness of the situation and stepped up a gear, also thanks to the substitutions of Frenkie de Jong and Ousmane Dembele. The logical consequence was the 1:1, which was reminiscent of the great Barca time with the current coach Xavi as a player.
The ‘Blaugrana’ combined with one touch over Dembele, De Jong and Torres through the defence, Torres completed (66′). When Tuta saw yellow-red (78th), Frankfurt’s chances of winning were finally gone. Barcelona controlled the game, but did not play with the final effort to make it 2-1, which is why Eintracht remained at least a prestige success.
With RB Leipzig, the second German club also drew 1-1 in front of a home crowd. The Saxons fell behind against Atalanta Bergamo due to a remarkable individual action by Luis Muriel, who hit the far corner with a flick (17th). The hosts’ equalizer came from an own goal by Davide Zappacosta (58′). Shortly before that, Andre Silva had awarded a penalty for RB. Konrad Laimer played through, his Leipzig teammate Dominik Szoboszlai beheaded the crossbar in the 82nd minute. Andre Silva had also failed on aluminum in the 24th minute.
Abel Ruiz’s 40th-minute goal gave Braga the Sporting match-winner against Rangers. West Ham made it 1-0 against Lyon despite being outnumbered after Aaron Creswell (45′) was red through Jarrod Bowen (52′), Tanguy Ndombele equalized for the French in the 66th minute.
Source: Nachrichten
