Having secured a hard-fought 1-1 draw in the first leg, Barcelona will host Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday.
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Having secured a hard-fought 1-1 draw in the first leg, Barcelona will host Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday. Last week, in Frankfurt, the Spanish side struggled to cope with the physicality and quick counter-attacking football of the German side. However, they managed to earn an away draw after Ferran Torres canceled out Ansgar Knauff’s opener. The winner of the match in Catalonia will play either West Ham or Lyon in the final four of the competition.
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The squad for #BarçaEintracht! pic.twitter.com/y9SYQn6npp
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 13, 2022
Frankfurt could have scored more goals but lack of ruthlessness kept the tie in the balance. A draw against the German club was a slightly surprising result for Xavi’s side, because of the stunning form they are going through. The Catalan club has won five of their last six games across all competitions.
In the last match against Levante , Barca were on the brink of dropping points, but Luuk de Jong’s late header helped them secure a thrilling 3-2 victory, and move back to the second spot in the La Liga standings. The result helped Xavi’s side to extend their unbeaten run to 15 games across all competitions.
Meanwhile La Blaugrana have kept four consecutive clean sheets at home since the 1-1 draw against Napoli in the last-32 stage back in February, and now will be aiming to claim their first Europa League win on home soil since 2004.
On the other hand, Frankfurt saw their seven game unbeaten run come to an end at the weekend, when SC Freiburg beat them 2-1 at Deutsche Bank Park. It is now five domestic games without a win for Olivier Glasner’s side. Thursday’s second leg will mark Frankfurt’s first-ever trip to Camp Nou for a competitive clash, and if they can come up with a similar performance as in the first leg, then we are in for a thriller.
Barcelona lost Gerard Pique due to an adductor issue in the first leg, but the central defender is back in the squad alongside full-back Sergino Dest. Meanwhile forward Memphis Depay is back in the training after a muscle injury and will be assessed ahead of this one.
As for Frankfurt, Glasner will be forced into a defensive reshuffle after Tuta was sent off for two yellow cards in the first leg, with Makoto Hasebe the likely candidate to replace him in the back-three.
Barcelona Possible Starting Lineup: Ter Stegen, Araujo, Lenglet, Garcia, Jordi Alba, Pedri, Busquets, F. De Jong, Dembele, Aubameyang, Torres.
Eintracht Frankfurt possible Starting Line-up: Trapp, Hasebe, Hinteregger, Ndicka, Knauff, Rode, Jakic, Kostic, Lindstrom, Kamada, Borre
The Europa League quarter-final fixture between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt will take place at the Camp Nou and it will kick-off at 12:30 am IST on Friday, April 15.
The match will be live streamed on the SonyLIV app and website, and the JioTV mobile app. Meanwhile football fans in India can also enjoy the action on TV networks, as the competition is telecasted on the Sony Ten network.
