It wasn't a call for help.

But Xavi's call to his own customers in Spain in the Frankfurt World Cup arena was quite meaningful.

After the 1-1 draw against Eintracht on Thursday evening, Barcelona's coach asked his own supporters for support for the Europa League second leg next Thursday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and on RTL) at the Camp Nou.

"I hope that the fans will come in large numbers.

It will be favorable if many come," Xavi said.

"We need a cauldron."

George Daniels

Editor in the sports department

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From his emotional words, it was clear that the Catalan football giants do not consider the task of reaching the semi-finals of Europe's second-highest competition to be trivial.

In the second duel with the ambitious challenger, the big favorite wants and must mobilize all their strength to meet their high standards.

"It will be a complicated game," believes Xavi, who classified the Frankfurters as "very strong opponents" after the gala performance against the giants.

"It was'nt easy.

That was a valuable draw.

It's a good result for us considering the game we played." The self-critical assessment of the prominent Barça coach, who attested his team a "bad game", makes it clear how "difficult" the Frankfurt team, who play with a lot of passion, is for the prestigious club had made life.

“The atmosphere was amazing”

Eintracht and Europa League – that is a successful relationship.

One that doesn't want to end and that is revived every time.

In the cauldron filled with 48,000 spectators in Frankfurt - "the atmosphere was unbelievable" (Xavi) - even Barcelona were no size too big for the Hessians, who proved to be competitive at a high level.

Who have once again grown with their task and who have set the next exclamation point on the big stage.

And they even coped with being outnumbered for a quarter of an hour after Tuta received a yellow-red card (78th minute), including injury time.

"It's a bit crazy in the end.

We feel like we could have won the game.

There was more in it," said goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.

"In the end we're a bit disappointed." Ansgar Knauff, the scorer for the spectacular 1-0 after 48 minutes, found it "a bit annoying that we didn't take the win with us".

"The win would have been possible" - said head coach Oliver Glasner with regard to "the outstanding performance" of his team.

The Austrian paid his players "a huge compliment" for the "great, tactically very disciplined and courageous performance".

The only reason why it was not rewarded with success was that Eintracht once lost track of the Spaniards' pass vortex.

At the end of the successful combination game, Ferran Torres put the ball into the Frankfurt goal to make it 1-1 (66th).

Otherwise, Trapp only had to be on the post once when he parried a dangerous shot from Torres from 20 meters after three minutes.

"We were very disciplined and didn't allow many chances," praised Glasner.