Eintracht goalkeeper Trapp: "The worst defeat of my career"

The red carpet has been rolled out, the stage is set.

The day before the day of days, you could get an impression of what's going on around the final training session of the two clubs when the big FC Barcelona plays at the German middle-class club Eintracht Frankfurt (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and at RTL).

The superlatives roll over one another.

There is talk of the game of the century as well as the most important game since the national championship final in 1960 against Real Madrid.

So now it really exists: the cracker between Eintracht and Barcelona, ​​the five-time premier class winner.

The fact that it is "only" the quarter-finals in the Europa League is a gift.

Ralph Weitbrecht

sports editor.

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More than 300,000 spectators wanted to be there live when the game of games takes place this Thursday evening from 9 p.m. under floodlights in the arena, which has been sold out for weeks with 48,500 visitors.

Right in the middle is someone who has very special memories of Barcelona: Kevin Trapp.

The goalkeeper is Eintracht's best player and has been in excellent form for months.

painful experience

And next to captain Sebastian Rode, in 2015 in the outfit of FC Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals, he is the only professional footballer in Frankfurt who has ever dealt with the Catalans.

It was a painful experience for the now 31-year-old national goalkeeper.

It happened when I was an employee of Paris St-Germain.

March 2017, Champions League, Round of 16.

Trapp and the other Parisians experienced their Waterloo in Barcelona with a good feeling of advancing to the next knockout stages thanks to the 4-0 first-leg win over Barça.

1:6, with three goals conceded in the last eight minutes - hardly anyone had thought this possible.

But the furious and unleashed triumphant Spaniards actually threw Trapp and PSG out of the competition.

"The worst defeat of my career," said Trapp at the time.

"I've been trying to forget it for years," he later told Eintracht's own media.

"But I keep being reminded of it because unfortunately it was a historic defeat."

"We believe in that"

So now the reunion - and the chance to do it differently with a new old club, with "his" Eintracht, which Trapp has grown so fond of in his eight years in Frankfurt.

"I'm looking forward to FC Barcelona, ​​we play football for games like this," he says.

Trapp knows the feeling from his time in Paris: "It's great to be able to compete against such top teams." The longing plan for Barça, big name or not: "Our big goal is to get ahead - we believe in that too."

In Frankfurt, of course, they know that the Spaniards are the big favourites.

Not only now in the quarter-finals against Eintracht, but in the Europa League as a whole.

Barcelona feel called upon to follow in the footsteps of record winners FC Sevilla this season and also to bring the cup in the second most important European competition to the Camp Nou.

The form is correct.

Barça has been unbeaten in 14 competitive games.

So who should throw Xavi's team off track and stop him?

Trapp is also and above all important.

So to the man for whom the game becomes a multifaceted challenge.

For Trapp, it's not just about making the seemingly impossible possible and being a reliable support for his team with further famous saves and thus creating a good starting position for the second leg in a week.

It's also about collecting more plus points in a direct duel with Marc-André ter Stegen.

The second man is also being sought in the short term.

The goalkeeper in the German national team, who should also represent Manuel Neuer at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year if the worst comes to the worst.

For years, ter Stegen, who was born in Mönchengladbach, was considered a deputy in the national team.

But Trapp has caught up a lot.

In the international match against Israel almost two weeks ago in Sinsheim, the penalty saved gave him further credit from coach Hansi Flick.

Ter Stegen, who has been in goal at FC Barcelona since 2014, and Trapp are now facing each other for the first time since 2017.

Back then, in the Champions League, there was the incredible comeback called La Remontada at the Camp Nou miracle.

And today, in the Europa League, at the game of the century?

It is not yet time for Eintracht to catch up.

For Eintracht, the main thing is to present yourself from your best side.

With power, heart and passion.

And with Kevin Trapp.