The elimination of Barça against Manchester United in the Europa League, a perfect excuse

Special Envoy to ManchesterA year ago, after Barça said goodbye to the Champions League with a resounding defeat at Bayern Munich, in a duel in which the Blaugrana depended on themselves to get through, Xavi Hernández met with Joan Laporta. The coach asked for an extra season to be able to grow the team and compete with the big ones in Europe, and the president promised to invest in signings. A year and 77 days later, however, the Blaugrana team is heading home again with its head under the wing, removed from the Champions League after meeting the Bavarians again in the group stage and definitively evicted from the Europa League at the hands of Manchester United. “Last year we didn’t even have a team to compete. This time we did it and showed our face. We were much better. We have to try again next season”, summed up the Barça coach at Old Trafford.

The expedition returned to Barcelona very upset. No one hides the frustration of being excluded, once again, from an international competition – the last Champions date was in 2015. But, once at home, a calmer reflection prevails. “The objective was, from the very beginning, to win the League. And we are on the right track. The problem is that the double European elimination hurts, no matter how much the image has improved”, they point out from the box office. At the Camp Nou they are trying to create their own story, giving value to the step forward that the team’s game has taken and highlighting, for example, the eight points advantage over Real Madrid. But in the noble offices they admit that, no matter how many merits are made in the League, the firm step of the madridistas in Europe conditions the point of view of barcelonaism.

United and Eintracht, two ways to lose

“But it’s not the same to lose against the best United of the last decade, than to see Eintracht Frankfurt pass you over at the Camp Nou”, they add from the Ciutat Esportiva. Barça were more solid and more supportive, and reacted in both games when they found themselves behind on the scoreboard. “A year ago, we would have clearly lost in the first leg”, they emphasize, about the match that ended 2-2 and with Barça suffocating the red devils in the last minutes. The losses of Gavi, Pedri and Dembélé, three key pieces in Xavi’s starting eleven, were definitive. “With them, it would have been something else…”, justified the coach at Old Trafford. “It was a disappointment, but not a failure,” said Jules Kounde. “It was a very even tie that got away from us because of small details. That made the difference,” added Sergio Busquets, captain, who reappeared on Thursday after the injury.

Losing was a blow. Although not as hard as in November, when Barça were out of the Champions League, unable to defeat Bayern and Inter in the four games played. “We were unlucky in the draw and, during the games, some incredible things happened – said Busquets, referring to the missed penalties -. But you also have to be self-critical and admit that at times we weren’t up to it.” “The season was being dismantled there, in terms of sporting and economic expectations”, they admit to the box office, which puts the money lost in relation to the budget at around 14 million euros. The investment in signings in the summer served to make a good starting team capable, for example, of going over Real Madrid in the Supercopa final. However, when there have been casualties – apart from the current ones, Araujo and Kounde did not play in the Champions League – the team has been a step below the greats.

The League and the Cup, the big goals

With the entire second round of the League to be contested, and on the doorstep of a double-leg Cup semi-final against Real Madrid, there were serious doubts at the club that Barça had enough squad to compete for all the titles. As of now, Thursdays competition in Europe is over and the team will have clean weeks. More time to recover physically and, at the same time, more time that Xavi will use to continue perfecting the game model. A doubly important fact if you take into account that, at the beginning of March, no one at Barça can guarantee 100% that this summer there will be fair play financial to make top level signings.