Barcelona scrape past Eintracht Frankfurt with unlikely hero

Originally posted on Football Espana | By Ruairidh Barlow | Last updated Dec 9, 2025 5:13 PM ET

Barcelona 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt

Barcelona knew that any hopes of finishing in the top eight of the Champions League likely hinged on three wins from their final three games, starting with Eintracht Frankfurt. The German side brought back bad memories for the Catalan giants though, having dumped them out of the Europa League three years ago.

The Blaugrana started well, hemming Eintracht into their own half for the opening minutes, and had the ball in the net through Robert Lewandowski early on, but Raphinha was offside in the build up. True to recent form though, Barcelona conceded first for the fourth game in a row after 21 minutes. Nathaniel Brown led a break in his own half, before clipping a delightful ball into the path of Ansgar Knauff in behind Gerard Martin. Shielding the ball from Alejandro Balde, he finished across his body into the bottom right corner for the Eintracht lead.

Outside of one Fermin Lopez effort that was goal-bound and cleared by a defender, Barcelona were held at arms’ length for the remainder of the first half, failing to combine in the opposition half.

Marcus Rashford and Jules Kounde flip the game

Hansi Flick introduced Marcus Rashford at the break in place of Lopez, and it paid immediate dividends. Five minutes after the break, Rashford curled a beautiful cross onto the head of Jules Kounde, who came in unmarked into the six-yard box for an easy finish. Three minutes after that, Kounde had to work a lot harder for his goal. A looping Lamine Yamal cross to the back post was met by Kounde, and guided softly just inside the post to flip the script.

There were signs that Barcelona would follow suit and begin to use the extra space as Eintracht were forced to attack more to sentence the game. Rashford had perhaps the clearest opening, seeing his effort blocked, while Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal powered shots over or into defenders.

Pedri: "Koundé is a guy who works really hard and these two goals are going to do him a world of good. Physically I'm in great shape after the injury."

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 9, 2025

By the end though, Flick’s side were struggling to retain possession, and were scrambling attacks away in their own box, with Joan Garcia the most commanding player on the pitch. Even if Eintracht did not force him into a difficult save, it was far from controlled or comfortable for Barcelona.

It takes their run of wins to four, and temporarily moves them up to 14th in the Champions League. Their ten points are two separated from Liverpool in 8th, before the second round of games. Flick will be content with the three points, but will have slept better after games.

This article first appeared on Football Espana and was syndicated with permission.

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