Furious, detested, occupied: Laporta and Xavi demand an investigation

"41 years of age, and I have never ever seen Camp Nou with so many visiting fans in a duel where Barca are the hosts. Both historical and embarrassing at the same time. Someone should explain this."

Those words coming from one Spanish journalist serve as a perfect summary and explanation of the atmosphere surrounding the Catalan giants morning after they suffered a terrible loss. Not only did Eintracht Frankfurt trash them 3-2 (3-0 until the stoppage time) and eliminate them from Europa League, but the German fans literally occupied the legendary Camp Nou.

EUROPA LEAGUE: Frankfurt Eagles take over Camp Nou! Barca are out of the competition

More than 25,000 visiting fans were seen in the stands, outvoicing the shocked majority of home supporters. Of course, you can not blame the tickets dispersion for a humiliating loss, but it's a massive disgrace for the club of Blaugrana's tradition and ilk.

"I was expecting 70,000 or 80,000 our fans here, but it wasn't like that," the head coach Xavi Hernandez told reporters. "The club is checking what happened."

Ronald Araujo added: 

"I'm surprised there were so many German fans in the stadium. The club will have to look at that."

Later, club president Joan Laporta said: 

"We are worried about the fact that today a big shame happened which can't happen again. We have a large part of the information at hand about what happened. We need time to process this, and we will take the appropriate measures, but it's shameful what happened."

FRI: 22.00: (2.20) SOCIEDAD (3.40) BETIS (3.60)

Apparently, as many as 26,000 Barcelona fans decided to "freeze" their season ticket for this match for various reasons - by doing so, those seats remained vacant and available for online booking. It is also suspected that many of the mentioned seasonal ticket-holders directly resold their tickets to guests from Frankfurt.