Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League in embarrassing fashion after a 3-0 loss against Bayern Munich at home. After their 3-0 defeat at Camp Nou, Xavi’s team only has four points from five games in Group C, placing them six points behind Inter for second place and guaranteeing their elimination from the competition. Barcelona, the five-time champion, has failed to go past the round of 16 in the Champions League for the second season in a row after doing so for 17 straight seasons. But this time, it might end up being considerably more harmful. Barcelona spent almost £130 million on new players in the summer, including the £40 million Robert Lewandowski, and their spending plan for the year took a run to the quarterfinals of the Champions League into account.
Spain’s sports media reacted angrily to Barcelona’s mild exit from the competition; the Catalan daily Sport called it a “total failure.” The 3-0 defeat against Bayern Munich, in which Barcelona failed to even register a shot on goal, is referred to on their main page as “the saddest game.” According to writer Sergi Capdevila, the possibility of winning the Europa League “is absolutely no comfort to anybody.” Similar to Mundo Deportivo, the newspaper describes Barcelona as “victims of their own ineffectiveness” and displays the words “ciao” and “kaput” above a picture of Sergio Busquets hunched over on the field.
Barcelona must compete in the Europa League round of 32 play-offs to advance to the round of 16, where they will take on one of the groups’ runners-up. The draw took made before the World Cup kicked off on November 7, and the playoff will be split into two legs on February 16 and February 23. In that round, Barcelona cannot be paired with another Spanish team; instead, their potential opponents will rely on the results of the final two Europa League group-stage matches.
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