One would typically expect one of Barcelona’s famed attacking names to come up with the finish that Ansgar Knauff did in the first leg last week, but it was the Frankfurt man who stunned the Blaugrana with a peach of a half-volley from outside the area with 48 minutes gone.
The 10 men of Frankfurt could and should have chalked up more than just the one goal on the night, and that lack of ruthlessness allowed Barcelona a route back into the game, which they took through Ferran Torres after a lovely team move involving substitutes Frenkie De Jong and Ousmane Dembele.
Being held to a 1-1 stalemate by a Frankfurt side who had previously struggled for any sort of attacking impetus was a slight hit to the Barcelona momentum under Xavi, whose side were on the brink of dropping points against Levante before an unlikely name in Luuk de Jong saved their bacon in stoppage time for a 3-2 win.
Now unbeaten in 15 matches across all competitions – a stark contrast to the forgettable days of the Ronald Koeman era – Barcelona have only been eliminated in one of their last six European ties when avoiding defeat in the first leg, and it is difficult to imagine how Frankfurt’s plethora of missed opportunities will not begin to haunt them.
La Blaugrana are also welcoming Frankfurt to a ground where they have kept four clean sheets on the spin since that 1-1 draw with Napoli in the last-32 stage back in February, and now would be as good a time as ever to claim their first Europa League win on home soil since 2004.
It was a sense of deja vu for Frankfurt in the first leg after they were previously held to a 1-1 draw at home in the last-16 by Spanish opposition in Real Betis, but seeing a seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions come to an end at the weekend was not ideal preparation for a trip to Catalonia.
Going 1-0 down and losing midfield enforcer Djibril Sow to injury represented a dismal first half for Frankfurt against Freiburg, and while they did respond to Vincenzo Grifo’s opener through Filip Kostic, Nils Petersen completed the job for Freiburg in the 69th minute.
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Oliver Glasner’s side held the label of resident draw specialists before suffering that 2-1 loss to Freiburg, and it is now five games without a win domestically and continentally for Die Adler, who are facing an uphill struggle to match their semi-final finish in the 2018-19 Europa League.
The bulk of Frankfurt’s matches in their recent winless run have come at the Deutsche Bank Park, though, with the Bundesliga club claiming three wins from four away from home in the 2021-22 Europa League so far, and they need no lessons in carving their way through the Barcelona backline.
Thursday’s second leg will mark Frankfurt’s first-ever trip to Camp Nou for a competitive clash, and while Die Adler have strung together a nine-game unbeaten run against Spanish sides, Barcelona have lost twice at home in 16 meetings with clubs from the Bundesliga
