The current season is not going very well for Barcelona. They failed to hold Lionel Messi in the beginning. They then fired coach Ronald Koeman and appointed former legendary footballer Xavi Hernandez as the new coach. But the change that Xavi had hoped for after his arrival, did not go unnoticed. After two decades of relegation from the Champions League group stage, the Spanish giants are relegated to the Europa League.
When Barcelona lost to Bayern in the last match of the group stage, Benfica got a great victory in the other match of the same group. Benfica got the knockout ticket as the second team of the group after losing to Dynamo Kyiv. And Barcelona dropped to third place in the Europa League. However, according to new coach Xavi, Barcelona’s place is not in the Europa League. His goal is to bring the team back to the Champions League next season.
He told a news conference after the 3-0 defeat to the German Giants,
“Today, Bayern were better than us, they were superior.”
“We have tried; we have pressed high, take the ball from them but our situation is the harsh reality that we have.”
“Today is the start of a new chapter for us and we have to start demanding a lot more from ourselves, we must use this as a turning point to change many things.
Barcelona was last eliminated from the group stage of the Champions League in 2000-01. At that time Lionel Messi was not in the main team of Bara. They have never had such a tragic outcome since the arrival of Messi. This time, Messi has left and the Catalans were relegated once again. The Catalan club finished third in the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) behind AC Milan and Leeds United that season.
