You showed greatness to the end.

That evening at the Europa League final in Seville, which turned into a rousing Fiesta España for them on the pitch

and seamlessly transitioned into a night in which tears of joy shed until sunrise and copious amounts of alcohol flowed in a trendy club in the old town of the Andalusian metropolis did a great service at the last second.

Marc Heinrich

sports editor.

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Even before they were allowed to receive the mighty trophy for winning the Europa League, the Eintracht players went to the losers of the Glasgow Rangers, offered consolation and thanked the defeated competitor for the contribution to a match that was so varied, intense and exciting went so that everyone involved was visibly marked by a heat event that was only decided in the last few moves and in a penalty shoot-out.

The Frankfurt winners shook hands with each of the men in blue, who gave a picture of disappointment with hanging heads and blank eyes – and then formed a trellis through which the Rangers walked to collect their consolation prize.

That had style.

Only then did the party on the lawn turn into an irrepressible confetti party in front of their own supporters, who again appeared almost entirely in white gear and who were the

bestia blanca

, the white beast, like Eintracht since their coup at FC Camp Nou Barcelona is reverentially titled in the second leg of the quarter-finals in Spain, first loudly supported against the numerical superiority of the Scots and then celebrated them almost inexhaustibly.

Trapp saves Ramsey's penalty

Oliver Glasner's voice sounded scratchy well after midnight when he started to analyze the moving event that enabled Eintracht to climb into new spheres.

As a Europa League triumphant, the Hessians are allowed to compete in the Champions League in the new season.

On August 10th there will be a Supercup duel in Helsinki with the champion of the premier class, who will be called either Real Madrid or Liverpool FC.

Either way, an attractive task.

Glasner said he felt grateful to his players, who had once again shown their resilient side.

“We always believed in ourselves.

From day one.

That's how we developed a spirit that carried us to the end," said the 47-year-old before the players crashed the press conference to pour beer on their boss.

Glasner beamed even more afterwards.

He was "very proud" of the group.

“Everyone put their egos aside and put everything at the service of the team.

Glasner called it a feat that the Frankfurters had achieved for the image and the international rating of the Bundesliga: "It is discussed again and again that apart from FC Bayern, nobody is competitive.

Today we showed that this is not the case.”

At the end of the regular two halves, it was 1-1 thanks to goals from Joe Aribo for Glasgow (57th minute) and Rafael Borré (69th), who equalized for Eintracht.

No goal was scored in extra time, meaning that the course of events had to be determined from the penalty spot.

"I predicted that it would be highly dramatic," summed up Eintracht spokesman Axel Hellmann, "but it became turbo-dramatic." He was flattened by the emotions and felt "dead" because what happened at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was more “than the average official can bear”, as he laughingly emphasized with a beaming smile on his face.