Defender’s second-half brace overcomes poor first-half display to keep Barcelona’s top-eight hopes alive.
Barcelona kept their slim hopes of a top-eight Champions League finish alive on Tuesday night, but they did it the hard way. A disjointed and error-ridden performance required two towering second-half headers from defender Jules Kounde to secure a nervy 2-1 comeback win over Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou.
The first half was a dismal affair from a Barcelona perspective. The attack looked sluggish and predictable, repeatedly breaking down with misplaced passes. Defensively, they were troubled all half by the pace of Ansgar Knauff, who timed a perfect run to open the scoring, easily shrugging off Alejandro Balde before finishing.
Fans headed to the concourse with audible groans, and manager Hansi Flick was visibly furious as he walked down the tunnel at halftime, his team booed off the pitch.
The second half began with a change, as Marcus Rashford replaced the struggling Fermín López. The breakthrough, however, came from an unlikely source. First, Kounde met a superb Rashford cross in the 55th minute to power home a header. Just three minutes later, he was at it again, nodding in Lamine Yamal’s delivery to send Camp Nou into raptures and complete a stunning quick-fire turnaround.
The introduction of Frenkie de Jong midway through the half finally brought a sense of calm to Barcelona’s play, allowing them to see out the game with more control, though not before Frankfurt missed a golden chance to equalize.
While the three points are crucial mathematically—keeping Barcelona in the hunt to avoid the knockout play-offs—the overall performance offered little encouragement. Beating a defensively vulnerable Frankfurt side by a single goal, after such a poor display, leaves serious questions about their credentials to compete with Europe’s elite this season.
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