It was a rather unusual Europa League final last night, without the usual Spanish clubs and in most recent times English sides as well, not featuring in the final that saw Eintracht Frankfurt take on Glasgow Rangers in what turned out to be an epic match between two little known sides in the 2021/2022 final in Seville.
The Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pijzuan was agog with thousands of fans from both the German and the Scottish sides and it turned out to be a really interesting night of football with such a powerful fanbase, both teams were ready to go at each other. Players to watch for the German contingent were Rafel Borre, Kamada, Djibril Sow, and wing-back, Filip Kostic. On the side of the Gers, the big names were skipper James Tavernier, Ryan Kent, Connor Goldson, and Joe Aribo.
The game started with a lot of excitement with both teams taking the first few minutes to observe how they played. Frankfurt were doing well in managing the wider areas of the pitch and the likes of Hasede and Filip Kostic were very active against the Rangers’ wing-backs. The Scottish side was also not sitting back and the game became an end-to-end affair with both teams breaking every now and then in a counter-strategy.
The first half ended goallessly and the respite time was much needed for such an intense half of football. The second half was soon underway and both teams picked up from where they stopped. The tempo was brought to a minimal level by the Rangers midfield who bean to dictate play in the middle of the park. Frankfurt began to lose the possession advantage and soon it was all Rangers.
Rangers broke the deadlock in the 57th minute, courtesy of Joe Aribo firing a well0-driven shot into the goal of Kevin Trapp to put the Gers ahead. They continued to boss the game but Frankfurt then began a well-known strategy of German teams known as high press. Frankfurt’s pressing became very intense and soon they found the equalizer through their Colombian striker Rafael Borre who scored at the 70th-minute mark.
With twenty minutes to go, Rangers began to lose grip and Frankfurt began to gain ground. However, the defending from the Gers defenders was on another level. Calvin Bassey did a very good job of displacing the attackers of Frankfurt. Late in the game, it was Rangers who won a free-kick but they decided to go all the way back to their defence and the centre referee blew for the end of normal time, with the score at 1-1.
Extra-time could not break the deadlock and after thirty minutes the referee signalled for the end of proceedings after 120 minutes of intense football. It was now down to penalties and Rangers skipper Tavernier stepped up first to find the back of the net. Frankfurt equalized and Ranger took the lead but Frankfurt still equalized keeping the score at 2-2. Rangers made it 3-2 and Frankfurt were not about to miss, with Kamada’s penalty brushing the side of the bar before entering the net. Rangers’ penultimate taker was Aaron Ramsey and the Welshman, unfortunately, had his penalty saved by Kevin Trapp. Kostic buried his spot-kick well away from the keeper and legendary striker Kemar Roofe scored his to make it 4-4. It was all down to Rangers goalie Al McGreggor and Colombian striker Rafael Borre. Borre scored his penalty, playing it to the roof of the net to give Frankfurt their first-ever European trophy in the club’s history.
Nigerian defender Calvin Bassey was voted Man Of The Match after a stellar performance across nearly two hours of football.
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