Barcelona was eliminated from the Champions League 2022-23 on Wednesday night after Inter Milan stormed to a dominant 4-0 win over Viktoria Plzen at San Siro. The Catalan club also suffered a 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich, adding more insult to injury. We take a look at seven reasons for the La Liga giants' latest disaster in Europe's elite competition:
It was a night that Barcelona fans would remember for a long time. For the second consecutive year, the Catalan club suffered a shock exit from the Champions League 2022-23 and will now have to play in the Europa League. On Wednesday night, Inter Milan stormed to a dominant 4-0 win over Viktoria Plzen at San Siro, leading to the La Liga giants' exit from Europe's elite football competitions. What added insult to injury was a shocking 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at Camp Nou.
Last season's shocker could have been foreseen following legendary forward Lionel Messi's departure and economic crisis. However, given the team's current situation, a Champions League exit in the Group Stages was not in the script. The Blaugrana board signed several elite footballers, including Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Kessie, and Bellern. The Catalan club did this by investing more than 150 million euros and assembling a competitive team that was prepared to compete for all trophies, which fans thought was possible after the team's start to the season.
A merciless draw in Champions League 2022-23
What led to this latest setback? There are many variables. Barcelona's failure to compete in the Champions League and subsequent elimination cannot be attributed to any one factor. Firstly, the draw was not favourable to them. They were assigned to the most challenging group. Regardless of opinions, it was the only one to include three European champions. Inter Milan was the most difficult opponent in the third pot, and Bayern Munich was one of the favourites to win the competition.
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Despite how well things went in the first few weeks, it has been established that Xavi Hernandez's men are not yet at the same level as the best in Europe. Given the signings noted above, it's still in its formative stages. When playing Bayern in Munich, they lacked the killer instinct to score. They had the opportunity to score in the first half, but some horrifying errors allowed the Bavarians to grab the lead in the second. The first three points are lost.
Decisive refereeing
With that result and Bayern Munich's victory against Inter Milan, second place was virtually a straight knockout tie in the two matches against the Italians. Here, there were two elements. First, there was the poor refereeing in Milan, which undoubtedly hurt Barcelona. Although that is not an explanation, it does contribute.
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Defensive fragility
The game in which Barcelona had everything on the line was more worrisome. They ruined their chances of qualifying in the clash against Inter Milan. The team's defensive mistakes were unworthy of a club that hopes to advance to the Champions League semifinals. The goals included individual errors, and Barcelona wasted their lead after Ousmane Dembele's first score. As a result, the clash ended in a 3-3 draw.
An injury-plagued campaign
We cannot overlook the problem of injuries. For the matches against Inter, Xavi Hernandez was missing Kounde, Araujo, Christensen, and Bellerin. Too many people were absent for two crucial games. Because of what we saw at Camp Nou against the Italians, they were pivotal. They wouldn't have made as many errors if there weren't so many absentees.
All these elements have caused Barcelona to be eliminated from the Champions League. A tough setback for a squad that hoped to rebuild this year, but things only seem to grow worse every year. Since the Catalan club's elimination in the semifinals against Liverpool in 2018/2019, the results have been: Lost in the quarterfinals to Bayern (2019/2020), lost the round of 16 against PSG (2020/2021) and the past two years have been knocked out of group stage. There are two games left in this season.
A Champions League exit is hard on a sporting level and at an economic level. Barcelona had set aside 20.6 million euros on the balance sheet in anticipation of making it to the Champions League quarterfinals; however, they will make up some of that money in the Europa League. The issue is that sponsors find it difficult to have faith in the Blaugrana after two years of missing out on the Champions League knockout stages.
In his post-match interview, Xavi was asked about whether the Blaugrana deserved to be knocked out of the competition: “I understand everything and our inability to be effective. It was cruel until the third goal. We were at the level to deserve something more, but life goes on and I think we will have to move on.” Only time will tell if Barcelona can bring back their lost glory.