Barcelona lastly bought one over Eintracht Frankfurt within the UEFA Champions League, edging out the Bundesliga facet 2-1 in a tense evening that swung closely after the break. Within the prematch report we anticipated loads of fireworks on this encounter, and the sport got here to life from the beginning.
Softfootball understands that the win right this moment was Barca’s first-ever win over Frankfurt in Europe, and it stretched the guests’ winless run to 4 video games in all competitions. Not fairly all through, however efficient when it mattered most, with Kounde starring vivid underneath the Camp Nou lights.
The Frenchman gained the participant of the match award, as revealed by Barcelona in a video posted by way of their official X account.
Watch the video under;
From the opening whistle, Barcelona got here flying out of the traps with actual urgency. Frankfurt barely had time to settle as wave after wave of stress got here crashing in.
Robert Lewandowski thought he’d opened the scoring with a neat volley inside ten minutes, however VAR noticed an offside earlier within the transfer. Quickly after, Gerard Martín tried one from vary, forcing Michael Zetterer into a pointy save.
However soccer could be merciless. Towards the run of play, similar to within the 5-3 La Liga victory in opposition to Actual Betis, Frankfurt landed a sucker punch within the twenty first minute. A intelligent move from Nathaniel Brown discovered Ansgar Knauff in stride, and the ahead used his power brilliantly to shrug off defenders earlier than drilling a low shot previous Joan García. Abruptly, Barça have been chasing the sport.
They saved pushing, although the ultimate move saved letting them down. Frankfurt doubled up on Lamine Yamal all evening, clearly cautious of {the teenager}’s tempo and trickery.
Pedri and Raphinha labored onerous to tug strings, however the German facet stayed organised. In added time, Knauff once more brought about issues, establishing Ellyes Skhiri whose thunderous effort simply flew over the bar.
Frankfurt even threatened once more early within the second half, displaying they weren’t merely there to defend. Raphinha wasted a giant probability quickly after, ballooning a cut-back from Marcus Rashford over the bar. That miss didn’t price Barcelona for lengthy.
Rashford, who was electrical off the bench, whipped in a scrumptious cross for Jules Koundé to move within the equaliser. Two minutes later, virtually unbelievably, Koundé did it once more as Frankfurt’s defence utterly switched off, heading residence one other pleasant cross, this time from the mercurial Lamine Yamal.
From there, Barca managed the closing levels. Raphinha examined Zetterer late on, whereas Frankfurt resorted to hopeful lengthy balls in quest of a lifeline which by no means got here.
