On Wednesday, December 8th, 2021 the Barcelona football club was defeated by Bayern Munich with a final tally of 3 to 0. This loss eliminated Barca from the knockout rounds of the Champions League.
This is the first time in 18 – years that the Barcelona football club will not play in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, and their manager, players, and fans are all devastated by this news. Barcelona has now dropped into the Europa League playoffs as they ended up finishing in 3rd – place of Group E of the Champions League qualifying matches.
This losing effort concluded a recent Barcelona campaign that would have been unimaginable during the Barcelona football club’s peak several years ago when they had the all – time great in Lionel Messi playing up front and having their head coach Pep Guardiola managing the squad from 2008 through 2012.
Barca’s group stage started with a 3 to 0 loss to Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou, and then things began to get much worse as they suffered a 3 to 0 defeat as well as a 0 to 0 draw versus Benfica. Barcelona’s football club only managed to score 2 – goals over the course of 6 – contests which were both scored vs. the last – place Dynamo, and Barca gave up 9 – goals during that stretch of group match play.
Media Statements
“We start a new era, from zero, from here, to work hard and to recover Barca and to put Barca in the place that we deserve, that is in the top of the Champions League,” the head coach of Barcelona’s football club, Xavi Hernández, explained to DAZN. “This is our reality. We are out of Champions League, we are in Europa League, but this is not the place of Barcelona.”
“We need to work hard, many things that put Barcelona in this situation. But this is our reality. I cannot say anything else,” Xavi goes on to say. “We need to win Europa League, work hard for recovering points in La Liga, win the cup, win the Super Cup, this is what Barcelona deserve … We will try to work hard. We have many injuries. Maybe we can sign some players now in January. Let’s see.”
Sources:
Dunbar, Graham. “Barcelona out of Champions League, snow extends group stage”. The Associated Press. December 8, 2021.
The Associated Press News Services. “Barcelona out of Champions League in loss to Bayern Munich” The Associated Press. December 8, 2021.