Barcelona will endeavour to move one step closer to Europa League glory

Post Views: 493

Barcelona will endeavour to move one step closer to Europa League glory when they travel to Eintracht Frankfurt for the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Thursday evening. The Catalan giants claimed a 2-1 aggregate win over Galatasaray in the last-16, while their hosts just about got over the line against Real Betis over two legs.

Eintracht Frankfurt have been inundated with 250,000 requests for the 48,500 available tickets at the Deutsche Bank Park for their first-ever European meeting against Barcelona. Despite a poor season domestically in the Bundesliga where they’re well off the pace for a European place, the ‘Eagles’ bring a six-game unbeaten competitive streak into this fixture (W3, D3) to lift fans’ morale, including a dramatic extra-time last minute own goal which eliminated Real Betis in the previous UEL round.

That result extended Frankfurt’s excellent record against Spanish sides (W5, D2) and with a 100% record in two-legged knockouts (W3), there should be some confidence in the home camp. Their chances against their more illustrious opponents receive a further boost from a record of having never lost a major European home game at this stage or beyond (W12, D4)!

Such a distinguished record calls for a formidable foe and Barcelona certainly meet that criteria, as they try to add yet more European silverware to their bulging trophy cabinet. And Barça are a side brimming with confidence at present too, after a run of 13 unbeaten competitive games (W10, D3), with four of the last five seeing them shutout the opposition. They did lose on a visit to Germany late last year in the Champions League, a result which made it three straight losses against German sides for the Spanish giants – although all three were against Bayern Munich.

After a poor start to the season, even Barça’s away record is on the rise with their comeback win at Galatasaray to ensure qualification for this round making it five consecutive competitive away wins, each seeing them score 2+ goals. With mentionable scalps over the likes of Napoli and Real Madrid during this run, bookmakers unsurprisingly make Barça strong favourites to end their travel woes to Germany.

Date: 07/04/2022
Time: 22:00
Venue: Deutsche Bank Park (Frankfurt)
Pick for this match:
“2” – @ 1.70 ( BETWAY )