Eintracht Frankfurt are the new Europa League champions. The Bundesliga club lifted the trophy on Wednesday night after defeating the Scottish side Rangers in the tournament finale via penalty shootout.
This is the first European trophy for Frankfurt since the 1979-80 season when they won the UEFA Cup—the competition that preceded the Europa League.
The match between Eintracht and the Rangers offered an entertaining first half, but neither team managed to get a goal despite chances on both sides. The deadlock was only broken in the 57th minute when a series of mistakes by the German side allowed Joe Aribo to pick up a loose ball and get the lead for the Rangers.
Frankfurt didn’t waste time from that point on and needed only 12 minutes to score an equalizer. Filip Kostic crossed the ball from the left side and found Rafael Borré, who managed to send the ball past Allan McGregor.
After the 1-1 score held up for the rest of regular time and extra time, Frankfurt and Rangers proceeded to penalty shootouts. Both teams were perfect in the first three series before Rangers’ Aaron Ramsey saw his penalty kick saved by Kevin Trapp. Kostic and Borré would go on to convert their penalties for Eintracht and kickstart a huge celebration among German fans.
