The Europa League final between Frankfurt and Rangers brought two perspectives on football fans in addition to exciting football

The Europa League final between Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers FC took place in Seville on Wednesday. Both teams have strong fan bases that made their presence felt.

Both fan camps clashed on the streets of Seville before kick-off

The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Andalusia’s largest city hosted the Europa League title match on Wednesday night. The city was expecting an onslaught of fans, with around 150,000 arriving in southern Spain.

Fans from both camps made their presence known before the match even started. Frankfurt fans attacked Scottish supporters at the start of the two main streets leading to the stadium. Outside the outdoor bars, a mass melee broke out and chairs flew through the air.

Police cars arrived at the scene after 6pm to calm the disturbance. Police arrested five German fans for rioting and assaulting their Scottish rivals, according to Spanish daily Marca.

It was a different spectacle at the stadium, with Frankfurt fans the lucky ones in the end

But the handful of supporters didn’t spoil the overall impression of the evening, as we could see a completely different picture of the cheering at the stadium. The two fan groups that divided the stadium into two halves, one white and the other.

But pictures of a packed stadium cannot describe the atmosphere that both camps created throughout the evening. The chants rang through the stadium until the final penalty shoot-out, where the Frankfurt side was the happier team in the end.

But those fans of the German club who didn’t make it to Spain needn’t have suffered at all. After all, Frankfurt supporters gathered in spectacular numbers at Germany’s own stadium and the footage from Deutsche Bank Park immediately went viral on social media.

Despite the huge crowds of fans, we didn’t see riot police or police dogs in the stadiums. Let’s hope that the latter view of cheering will prevail in football because it makes the sport even more beautiful

Source: Marca, Twitter