Barcelona’s woes for the season only are getting intensified, with the club now getting relegated to the Europa League after another dreadful defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich. Goals from Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala drove them into the Europa League for the first time since the competition was formed in 2004.
After the full-time whistle, head coach Xavi Hernandez spoke about the current situation, and noted that he was incredible angry at the reality of the club. However, he wishes to take this challenge as a new start, and urged his players to start from ground zero. He wants his players to go out and win every possible trophy from here on.
“I’m angry. This is the reality and it pisses me off. We have to tackle it face on. There’s nothing else for it. A new era starts today. We start from zero. Barça’s objective is the Champions League, not the Europa League.
But our reality now is the Europa League and we have to go all the way and win it. This is Barça’s goal – to win every game and win every title,”
he said.
The last four seasons for Barcelona have produced very forgettable moments, especially in the Champions League. From getting knocked out in the hands of Roma and Liverpool despite holding a three-goal advantage at one point, to getting thrashed 8-2 by Bayern Munich in 2020, the club has failed to exert its dominance despite winning the trophy four times between 2006 to 2015.
They started the season with another club legend at the helm, in Ronald Koeman. However, after an extremely poor run of results in La Liga and Champions League, which included defeats to Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Benfica and Real Madrid, were enough to restart the hunt for a manager, and they turned to Xavi, who was managing Saudi’s Al Sadd.
The financial crunches which have crumbled the club this season, also leading to the exit of club stalwart Lionel Messi, are adding up further more as they might see some other important players like Frenkie de Jong and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen leave in the coming months.
