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Frankfurt players celebrate after defeating FC Barcelona at Camp Nou
Photo:
Joan Monfort/AP
After the final whistle, the people in white were quiet for a moment.
The fans of Eintracht Frankfurt, who were spread out everywhere, were still shocked by two late goals from FC Barcelona.
But as their players cheered, they quickly realized that it was really happening that their club, 3-2 at the Camp Nou, landed what is arguably their most prestigious success of the color television era.
They move towards each other across the huge stadium and chanted: »Away win«.
And that's exactly what it wasn't.
But first things first, because it's been a crazy few weeks: Eintracht Frankfurt beat Barcelona, who recently won 4-0 at Real Madrid, who in turn just knocked out the defending champions Chelsea from the Champions League.
Actually, this Frankfurt should play for all available titles - but no, it is ninth in the Bundesliga, 30 points behind leaders FC Bayern, who in turn lost out to Spain's seventh-placed Villarreal.
Or, as coach Oliver Glasner said to sports director Markus Krösche on the historic night: “If someone had told me after the elimination against Waldhof Mannheim in the cup that we would get into the semi-finals of the Europa League by winning in Barcelona, then I would have him for declared insane.«
Blessed be the Easter football carnival - and from Frankfurt's point of view a perfect evening, from the lead with the first attack to a millimeter decision by VAR, which prevented Barcelona from coming back earlier and pushed it into the eleven-minute stoppage time.
By the way, that happened because the referee's technology failed completely in between.
But that was no more than a footnote.
Because the biggest match was played in the stands.
There were also football explanations for the Frankfurt coup
It started well before kick-off;
with a never-ending parade of white-clad Hessians.
Beyond the upper tier intended for them on the southeast side - officially, as always in the European Cup, only around 5000 tickets went to the opponent - they fanned out over the entire Camp Nou.
The venerable stadium experiences a lot in its old age.
Two weeks ago, a women's world record audience with over 90,000 people.
And now: An away fans record with around 30,000 Frankfurters.
This is how the Eintracht Twitter account stated its own share among the official 79,468 visitors.
30,000 people and the question: How much do fans matter?
Or, if you want to exaggerate: Do they own the game after all?
Because sure, there were all sorts of football explanations for the Frankfurt coup.
Barça looked drained, missing the injured animator and defender Gerard Piqué and soon had to replace their new star Pedri as well.
In addition, Barça is Eintracht, you could see that in the 1-1 in the first leg.
The Frankfurters were physically superior, playfully precise enough for lightning-fast counterattacks through the gaps of the offensive opponent and tactically so perfectly organized that they closed the middle Barça loved and forced high balls from the outside.
In short, Eintracht turned out to be a “really great team” (Glasner).
But no less clear and, above all, more unusual was the effect from the stands.
It was just not an away game for Eintracht.
Even Barça's team bus barely made it to the stadium because of the white crowds on the streets.
The Catalans' foreboding became a certainty when they were booed during the warm-up.
At Camp Nou.
What had been valid for their whole life was no longer valid: they were guests in their own living room.
And mentally inferior to the Frankfurters in their Europa League fetish competition.
"Of course that didn't help," Barcelona coach Xavi said afterwards.
"Something like that shouldn't happen at a home game." The atmosphere was similar to that at a final at a neutral venue: two camps with roughly the same volume that boosted each other.
Until the Barça curve retreated closed for the first ten minutes of the second half - in protest against the presence of guests in their ranks.
»Highlights of an athlete's life that money can't buy«
The pain of the situation, which was perceived as humiliation, exceeded that of the largely helpless game and missing the last realistic chance of the title this season.
"A disgrace that must never be repeated," lamented President Joan Laporta: "Outrageous and embarrassing."
He announced that the club already knew some of the background and will explain it in the next few days.
"We in the dressing room want to know that too," added Xavi vehemently.
The Frankfurt takeover was favored by the determination not to let anything dissuade you from the trip to Catalonia - certainly not by announcements from Barcelona that tickets would not be issued to Germans outside the guest block.
Then there was the Easter weekend, which drove many locals out of the city just as of Thursday.
The turmoil of the pandemic, which allowed the usual season ticket holders to sit out for a season.
And the long-established practice of many subscribers to make maximum profit from their annual ticket by selling it to tourists for individual games.
Experts now fear a penalty from Uefa because of possible security risks.
The same wild mix of fans with opposing clubs or a more polemical course of play – and anything else could have happened.
But the hurriedly composed stadium announcement in German paid off: »Football brings us together«.
Not all, but the vast majority of Frankfurt supporters behaved halfway as politely as their coach, who first apologized to Barcelona in the press conference.
If only for the fact that he cheered on the third Eintracht goal in the direction of the Barça bench, which should just be seen as a coincidence.
Apart from that, the people of Frankfurt had nothing to regret during their magical night.
Too much to wallow for.
"Emotional highlights of an athlete's life that you can't buy for any money," says Glasner.
"There are not so many words that can describe how it feels," added goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, who amazed the locals with his excellent Spanish and en passant extinguished the demons of what was perhaps his most difficult defeat, the 1: 6 with Paris St. Germain in the same stadium in 2017. Where, same stadium?
Structurally, of course.
But not at all in terms of atmosphere.
As Trapp said, "I thought I was in Frankfurt."