Eintracht affair continues to have an effect
Four days after the surprising Europa League end against Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Barcelona also suffered a painful home defeat in the Spanish LaLiga. The second in the table lost 0-1 (0-0) against FC Cádiz on Monday. Lucas Pérez overcame national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen in the 48th minute with a dust collector. With the victory, the guests left the relegation zone. In front of just over 57,000 spectators in the huge Camp Nou, Barcelona did not score a goal despite their superiority – it was the first defeat after 15 LaLiga games.
As a result, the hosts failed to pull away from their equal-ranked rivals FC Sevilla and Atlético Madrid in the race for the Champions League qualification. However, the Catalans have played one game less. They are now 15 points behind leaders Real Madrid. The record champions won 3-2 in Seville on Matchday 32 after being 2-0 down and is heading for the next title.
Eintracht affair: FC Barcelona fans are demanding the resignation of President Laporta
Before the game, supporters of FC Barcelona had protested against the club leadership after the great anger at tens of thousands of Frankfurt fans in the Camp Nou at 2: 3 in the Europa League. On the esplanade in front of the stadium, they demanded the resignation of club president Joan Laporta, “Laporta’s resignation” and “Barça, that’s us” were chanted over and over again. The fan association “Nostra Ensenya” had called for the protest. The media estimated the number of participants at 100 to 200.
SGE fan choreos in the Europa League 2018/09
Another ultra group, “Grada d’Animacio”, had even called for a boycott of the encounter. On Instagram, “Nostra Ensenya” described the large number of visiting fans at the game in which Eintracht threw Barça out of the competition as a humiliation. The association accuses Laporta of allowing this for financial reasons and of having “endangered” the “physical integrity” of the home fans.
Coach Xavi had also criticized the unusually strong presence of the guest fans. This played a role in the defeat, said the ex-captain on Sunday. “The players didn’t feel comfortable, which doesn’t mean we weren’t good. But it has had a negative impact on us.” Meanwhile, Laporta announced a press conference for Tuesday (12:00 p.m.) where he would like to give a clarifying statement on Thursday’s events. The Barça boss had already stated that he would only sell personalized tickets for international games in the future. There were more than 30,000 Eintracht fans in the Catalans’ stadium on Thursday, although FC Barcelona said it had only sold 5,000 tickets to Germany.
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