The road to the Europa League final for Barcelona makes a stop in Germany
Barcelona progressed to the quarterfinals of the Europa League after coming away with a 2-1 in Turkey against Galatasaray.
The Catalans now know who they will face.
The side managed by Xavi Hernandez were drawn against German side Eintracht Frankfurt. This will be the first time these two sides play one another in an official competition.
Eintracht Frankfurt got to the quarterfinals thanks to a late winner in overtime against Real Betis.
Similar to the matchup against Galatasaray, on paper, Barcelona should be the favorites. But as we saw, Gala were no pushover and Frankfurt are not going to make things easy despite sitting ninth in the Bundesliga.
Frankfurt manager Oliver Glasner is confident of his team’s chances of getting through.
"“Barça is one of the most important names in European football, but to put it bluntly, if we progressed and eliminated LaLiga’s fifth place team, we can do the same against the third.”Source: Mundo Deportivo"
While it may be too early to read into anything or try to predict the final outcome, one thing is certain: Eintracht Frankfurt are not going to be scared to play Barcelona.
Under Xavi Hernandez, the team has improved but there is still a lot of work to be done and Galatasaray, also mired in midtable, proved it.
The Blaugrana are going to have to be focused and not complacent like they looked in the first leg against Gala.
It will also be interesting to see how Barcelona perform with the roles reversed. In the two previous rounds, they played the first leg at the Camp Nou with the second on the road. Now its the opposite.
The rest of the quarterfinals will see West Ham take on Lyon, RB Leipzig face Atalanta and Braga against Rangers.
The first legs will take place on April 7 with the second leg on April 14. Should Barcelona go through, they will meet the winner between West Ham and Lyon.