Embarrassed and ashamed: Barcelona president gutted after 30,000 Frankfurt fans flood Camp Nou

It didn’t seem like Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt were playing at Camp Nou. As many 30,000 Frankfurt supporters had flooded the iconic stadium in Barcelona and made it feel like The Waldstadion for the away side that stunned Barcelona in the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday.

The Frankfurt fans, dressed in white, cheered on the visitors who 3-0 in the 67th minute even as the supporters of the Catalan giants watched the proceedings on the field with shock. Some left in frustration as Xavi’s side faced elimination from Europe, once again.

It was a surreal sight to see so many Frankfurt supporters creating a home environment at Camp Nou as only 5,000 tickets were allocated for the way fans for the Champions League quarter-final. In the end, it proved to be a disastrous night for Barcelona as Filip Kostic scored twice in a 3-2 victory that saw Eintracht advance 4-3 on aggregate. According to ESPN, there were close to 30,000 Frankfurt fans among 79,468=srong crowd.

“Frankly what happened today makes me feel embarrassed and ashamed. There were many fans of the other team and not many of ours,” Laporta told Barca TV.

“I’m very sorry for what has happened. What we can avoid are certain situations but as of now, we will have to be much more strict. We can’t allow these situations to happen.”

XAVI DISAPPOINTED

Barcelona fought back and scored two injury-time goals through Sergio Busquets and Memphis Depay but it was nt enough as Frankfurt reigned supreme both on and off the field at Camp Nou.

A disappointed head coach Xavi conceded that the crowd situation did not help Barcelona while stressing that it’s not an excuse for the quality of football that was on display from his side.

I’ve tried to tell the players that the important thing is what happens on the pitch, but logically this could have affected us. It’s very clear,” Xavi said.

“We’ve tried to focus on the game and we’ve not been good. It has nothing to do with one thing and the other. It’s not an excuse. It hasn’t helped us, but on the pitch, we haven’t been good, and we haven’t competed.”