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Europe: Champions League
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Club, keeper, and coach condemn stadium scenes on Tuesday: "No place in this world."

By Peter Weis   @PeterVicey

Eintracht Frankfurt's historic first-ever UEFA Champions' League win was somewhat hampered by more scenes of violence in the stands both before kickoff and throughout the match. 

At his post-match presser, the club itself, keeper Kevin Trapp, and SGE trainer Oliver Glasner roundly condemned the behavior of the fan camps at the fixture. 
Oliver Glasner.
Oliver Glasner.Photo: OneFootball
Eintracht Frankfurt secured their first-ever win at European football's top-level on Wednesday night in Marseille. The match proved an absolute cracker, with both teams battling hard and generating gorgeous scoring chances right up until the end. Unfortunately for the German UCL representatives, it was not the cracker of a match that they were left to discuss after the full-time whistle, but the firecrackers in the stands.


Not unlike last week when a German team traveled to France for a European club competition match, unpleasant scenes in the stands prior to kickoff were beamed around the world. The two opposing fan camps launched pyro flares into one another's blocks prior to kickoff. Things quieted down a bot after kickoff, but the exchanges resumed after Daichi Kamada scored the second (ultimately disallowed for offside) goal in the 79th.

At least one Eintracht supporter was admitted to the hospital. Cameras also caught one SGE supporter giving what was interpreted by many to look like a Nazi salute. The incidents could have grave consequences for the Rhein-Main club. Eintracht fans are already on UEFA's probation list following behavior in last spring's UEL semi-final leg against West Ham in London. The SGE faces a "Geisterspiel" (spectator-less "ghost game") if UEFA rules that it supporters initiated the violence.

Eintracht quickly condemned both the flare exchanges and the purported Nazi salute on all its social media channels Tuesday evening. A through investigation has been promised. Frankfurt keeper Kevin Trapp--no stranger to the scare of firecrackers going off in his vicinity during a European match--noted afterwards that it was "a tremendous pity that it [the atmosphere] degenerated like this."

"These are senseless acts," head-coach Oliver Glasner added at the post-match presser "If you throw firecrackers at you fellow fans, you need to be thrown in jail immediately. It has no place in the world. A small minority use this platform to make a ruckus."







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