‘I’m embarrassed and ashamed’ – Barcelona president promises to ‘take action’ after ticket shambles in Europa League defeat

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has promised to ‘take action’ after thousands of extra Eintracht Frankfurt fans gained access to the Nou Camp for the Europa League quarter-final, admitting the situation left him ’embarrassed and ashamed’.

Barca were knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday night as Frankfurt secured a famous victory in Spain to set up a semi-final against Premier League club West Ham.

While Xavi’s Barcelona were held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg, they were still widely expected to go through at home on the back of a 15-match unbeaten run.

But Frankfurt won 3-2 at the Nou Camp in front of an estimated 30,000 fans who made the trip from Germany. As well as selling out their away allocation, thousands of Frankfurt fans could be seen celebrating in the home end.

Barcelona president Laporta said: ‘Frankly what happened makes me feel embarrassed and ashamed. There were many fans of the other team and not many of ours.

‘I’m very sorry for what has happened. What we can avoid are certain situations but as of now, we will have to be much more strict. We can’t allow these situations to happen so we will take action.’

Xavi, meanwhile, said the situation with the fans did not help his side as they crashed out of the Europa League.

‘I was expecting 70,000 Barcelona fans to fill Camp Nou, but that wasn’t the case,’ he said.

‘[The presence of German fans] was a miscalculation and the club is reviewing it. It looked more like a final instead of a home game.

‘Frankly, I’m disappointed and so are the players. We needed an atmosphere and it was not there. We expected more fans to support us.’

He added: ‘The atmosphere in the stands did not help us, that is clear. It affected us and we were not well, this is not an excuse