We are all heroes, says Trapp

SEVILLE • Eintracht Frankfurt ended their 42-year barren run in Europe on Wednesday, beating Rangers 5-4 on penalties to lift the Europa League trophy in a final that will be remembered for the show put on by both sets of fans in a packed stadium.

An estimated 150,000 supporters arrived, the vast majority without tickets for the big game. The two finalists were allocated only 10,000 tickets each at the 42,000-capacity Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium, the home of La Liga side Sevilla.

There was a rare vibrant atmosphere for a European decider in which fans of the two teams must travel - often a long distance - to a neutral stadium and share it with locals and Uefa sponsors' guests.

Despite being outnumbered by the Scottish club's supporters, the German fans were still full of voice, bringing thousands of white flags, black-and-white scarfs and a giant banner that covered their end of the stadium, lighting flares at the start of the second half.

Eintracht fought back through Rafael Santos Borre's equaliser after Joe Aribo had opened the scoring for Rangers.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw before a tense 30 minutes of extra time and the resultant shoot-out.

Rangers fans turned up the volume when the referee's coin toss decided the shoot-out would take place at their end of the stadium.

But their wall of noise failed to distract the five Eintracht players who all scored from the spot, while Juventus loanee Aaron Ramsey was the only Rangers player to miss.

When Santos Borre converted the last kick for Eintracht to claim a European trophy for the first time since 1980, their fans kicked off rapturous celebrations.

The party carried on for almost an hour after captain Sebastian Rode lifted the trophy, belting out both the club anthem and the Queen song We Are The Champions in the festivities.

Eintracht became the competition's only unbeaten team, not losing any of their 13 Europa League games and the team said the 12th man had been crucial to ending their trophy drought, while they also qualified for next season's Champions League.

"This was a team effort and that is including our fans," Rode added.

Germany goalkeeper Kevin Trapp pointed to the section where their supporters stood, saying: "We are all heroes. We all did this, just take a look at that."

In the streets of Seville, tens of thousands of Eintracht fans continued to celebrate until the early morning hours, while back in Frankfurt, over 100,000 supporters started spontaneous parties in the club's arena around a public viewing and several beer gardens.

The players yesterday returned to Frankfurt with over 200,000 fans cheering them on at the city's famous Romer Place as they paraded the trophy on the town hall's balcony.

REUTERS, XINHUA