Xavi has publicly urged the fans who once idolised him as a player to make the Camp Nou stadium “a pressure cooker” for this return leg, especially with Barcelona targeting only a second major European semi-final since 2015/16.
FC Barcelona
Barcelona defeated Levante 3-2 on Sunday night, with an injury-time strike putting gloss on what is now an unbeaten competitive run of 15 games – the longest across Europe’s top-five leagues. That includes a 1-1 draw in their UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg clash against Eintracht Frankfurt, giving coach Xavi hope that Barcelona’s worries over finishing outside La Liga’s top-four will be made redundant by UEFA Europa League glory. Xavi has publicly urged the fans who once idolised him as a player to make the Camp Nou stadium “a pressure cooker” for this return leg, especially with Barcelona targeting only a second major European semi-final since 2015/16.
A strong defensive performance is expected, with Barça keeping four straight home clean sheets, last keeping more in a row back in January 2018.
Eintracht Frankfurt
Frankfurt lost 2-1 in the Bundesliga over the weekend, halting a run of four competitive draws, but the fans chanted “away win, away win”, underlining their ambitions. The German side have never lost a two-legged knockout tie against Spanish opponents, and are unbeaten in the UEL this season, provoking dreams of the ‘Eagles’ recreating the club’s famous 1979/80 UEFA Cup-winning run. Sporting an identical record over their last four away UEFA Europa League games and their last four away games against Spanish clubs, any surprise win for Frankfurt seems near-certain to be a tight affair. Including all three this season, 11 of their last 12 UEFA Europa League away wins have come via a single-goal margin.
Including the reverse leg strike, Ferran Torres has four goal involvements in his last five UEFA Europa League games with both goals coming when Barça were 1-0 behind. Filip Kostic also scored when Frankfurt were 1-0 behind over the weekend, but his last UEFA Europa League away goal gave them a 1-0 lead. Eight of Frankfurt’s last ten UEFA Europa League games have stood level at half-time.