Sometimes, the Champions League draw can be such a killer. And Barcelona didn’t have luck this season. Not only did they got a strong group (unlike for example Manchester United), but the draw had put them against Bayern Munich in a first match. And that was painful to watch, especially for the fans. They got the real picture of their team strenght after the first game, and it was shocking. Now they are feeling miserable, and it’s only the first game. It will be a long season for this stumbled team. Nothing new in Barcelona: Muller and Lewa on target, Bayern winsSociedad, Getafe and Athletic Bilbao were certainly not a proper test for Koeman’s men, so maybe some fans were thinking that their team had a chance in the Champions League. No, they don’t, and Bayern game showed that. This team was badly selected during the former president’s era, and new players were brought in mainly because they were financially acceptable (three free agents and average De Jong), not because they were great players. For the first time in their proud Champions League history, Barcelona had no shots on target throughout the 90 minutes. The players are simply not up to club’s standards and it was clear to anybody who saw this team during the summer. Fair enough, Barca are clearly missing Aguero, Dembele and Ansu Fati, but we are talking about three injury prone players. When they become available, they will be match-to-match, until they get hurt again. 3 – Barcelona have lost three consecutive home game in European competitions for the first time in their history (0-3 vs Juventus, 1-4 vs Paris Saint-Germain and 0-3 vs Bayern Munich). Shock. pic.twitter.com/L93fCNE0dZ— OptaJose (@OptaJose) September 14, 2021 So, it is a real surprise that the president Laporta had an urgency meeting with his staff after the Bayern game. According to Mundo Deportivo, Laporta met with his vice president Rafael Yuste and the football director, Mateu Alemany and the meeting lasted until two in the morning. Were they surprised by the outcome of the match? Haven’t they seen this team in training and realized what are their capabilities? Is Koeman already in trouble?The Dutchman is not to blame for the squad. He could buy a limited number of players, due to financial crisis and he did what every Dutch coach does – bought as much Netherlands players as he could, but it won’t help this time. “Today we only had three forwards, nothing more. Tactically there were many phases of the game that we had controlled. We have tried to fill spaces near Lewandowski, we have tried to compete better, but it is what it is. I can’t complain about the attitude. There is a difference in quality, as a team, as a team and a bench that has also improved. In two or three years these young players are going to be better. It is very difficult to accept, but this is what there is. We started well, we had problems getting to the top due to circumstances. We were unlucky in the first goal. From 0-2 it has been very difficult where Bayern has shown that they are a better team than us. Bayern is one of the candidates to win the title. We lacked speed up, we have tried to put young people to give energy. There were differences between our young people and their players” he said in statements to Movistar.22:00 (2.60) Inter (3.35) Real (2.90)Captain Gerard Pique also lamented on the first unlucky goal but gave an honest assessment on his team’s chances in the Champions League. „We competed in the first half and their goal comes from a deflection. The team did not hide and we had young players making their debuts in the Champions League. I feel sure we will end up competing. We have Ansu Fati, Ousmane Dembele and Kun Aguero still to come back from injury. We are clearly not among the favourites for the Champions right now“ said the Barça captain after the 3-0 loss. He is right.
