Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
On May 18, the city of Seville will play host to Rangers of Scotland and Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany in the 2022 UEFA Europa League final.
The Scottish side emerged victorious as they pulled the impossible to defeat RP Leipzig of Germany 3-2 on aggregate to qualify after a 1-0 loss in Saxony a week ago.
Their opponents, Eintracht Frankfurt, reached their first European final in 42 years after a 1-0 home win on Thursday over 10-man West Ham to qualify for the grand price on a 3-1 aggregate victory.
For Rangers, goals from captain James Tavernier, Glen Kamara and John Lundstram overturned Leipzig’s first-leg advantage, handing the favourites a surprise defeat.
With everything to lose, the Rangers quickly fired two goals at Leipzig first from Tavernier arriving at the back post to slide in his seventh goal knockout stages and six minutes later, they scored again with Kamara placing a precise finish into the corner from the edge of the box.
Their hopes soon turned sour as Leipzig gunman Christopher Nkunku calmly planted a side-footed volley past Allan McGregor in the 71st minute to restore the parity.
But with Rangers struggling to hold out for extra time with 10 minutes left, Ryan Kent stood up a cross to the back post, Josko Gvardiol cleared from under the bar, and Lundstram scored the loose ball to send the home team into a frenzy.
In the other match, there was no hope for West Ham as Frankfurt went ahead in the 26th minute from a goal by Colombia striker Rafael Borre.
The Hammers were bidding to make their first European final in 47 years but having lost the first leg 2-1 at home, their task became much more difficult when Aaron Cresswell was sent off in the 19th minute in Frankfurt.
Manager David Moyes was sent off for an outburst on the sidelines before Tomas Soucek somehow missed from a few yards out with a headed chance he would normally have buried.
For Frankfurt, they remain unbeaten in the competition and are now arguably favourites to take the trophy after Rangers stunned RB Leipzig to deny an all-German final.
This will be their third final in a major European club competition. In 1959-60, they lost to Real Madrid in the European Cup and in 1979-80, SGE, as they were known, beat Borussia Mönchengladbach in the UEFA Cup.
Rangers, on the other hand, are the first Scottish club to reach the final of a major European competition since they played in the then 2007-08 UEFA Cup final. They have reached five such showpieces, as many as every other Scottish side combined.
Meanwhile, in the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid will face Liverpool in Paris on Saturday, May 28 after they defeated Manchester City 6-5 on aggregate on Wednesday.
