It was now or never for Barcelona. The Catalan club went to Munich knowing that only a win would guarantee them a place in the Champions League knockout stage. But they simply failed to turn up and rise to the occasion. These days, winning against a top team is far beyond Barca’s reach – they are out after a 3-0 thrashing at an empty Allianz Arena.A limp performance of Xavi Hernandez’s team was rightly exposed and punished by a Bayern team that routinely beats better teams than Barcelona – and we’re talking about their Bundesliga opponents. This Barca team would struggle against the likes of Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen or Union Berlin – let alone Bayern Munich.pic.twitter.com/POr1tXGIIB— Out Of Context Football (@nocontextfooty) December 8, 2021 To have any chance of toppling a quality opponent, you need to get the basics right. One of them is to have a goalkeeper who knows what he’s doing. Tonight, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen was one of the weakest links in the rusty chain that is FC Barcelona. His two poor reactions allowed Thomas Muller and Leroy Sane to score two soft goals and give the hosts a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break.Robert Lewandowski made Gerard Pique look silly with his footwork before pinging a looping cross onto the far post where Muller leapt and looped a header that just crossed the line despite a desperate attempt of Ronald Araujo to clear it in time.Just a few minutes later, Leroy Sane fired a long-range shot with his left foot. It had a wicked swerve to it, but it still looked easy enough for Ter Stegen to at least fist it away. Instead, it flew in through the arms of the German goalkeeper, making it 2-0. Xavi was looking into the abyss and was pushed into it when Jamal Musiala added the third goal after an hour played and killed off any lingering hopes that Barca could stage a comeback.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Barcelona used to be knockout stage regulars for a long time. The last time they failed to qualify from their UCL group was in the 2000/01 season. Since then, they entered Europe’s strongest club tournament 19 times and every time they managed to finish in a top-two position in their group. Until tonight.Elsewhere in the competition, Salzburg beat Sevilla in a tight game to qualify and condemn the Spaniards to their favourite competition – the Europa League.These teams will be featured in the Champions League knockout stage draw:SEEDED TEAMSAjax (Netherlands)Bayern Munich (Germany)Juventus (Italy)Liverpool (England)Manchester City (England)Manchester United (England)Real Madrid (Spain)LOSC Lille (France)UNSEEDED TEAMSAtletico Madrid (Spain)Chelsea (England)Inter (Italy)Paris Saint-Germain (France)Sporting Clube de Portugal (Portugal)Salzburg (Austria)Benfica (Portugal)Either Atalanta (Italy) or Villareal (Spain) will qualify.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUEGroup stage – matchday 6TuesdayRB Leipzig – Manchester City 2-1 (1-0)/Szoboszlai 24, Silva 71 – Mahrez 76/PSG – Club Brugge 4-1 (3-0)/Mbappe 2,7, Messi 38, 76 – Rits 68/Real Madrid – Inter 2-0 (1-0)/Kroos 17, Asensio 79/Shakhtar – Sheriff Tiraspol 1-0 (1-0)/Fernando 42 – Nikolov 90+2/Milan – Liverpool 1-2 (1-1)/Tomori 29 – Salah 36, Origi 55/Porto – Atl.Madrid 1-3 (0-0)/Oliveira 90+6 – Griezmann 56, Correa 90, De Paul 90+2/Dortmund – Besiktas 5-0 (2-0)/Malen 29, Reus 45, 53, Haaland 68, 81/Ajax – Sporting 4-2 (2-1)/Haller 8, Antony 42, Neres 58, Berghuis 62 – Santos 22, Tabata 78/WednesdayZenit – Chelsea 3-3 (2-1)/Claudinho 38, Azmoun 41, Ozdoev 90+4 – Werner 2, 85, Lukaku 62/Juventus – Malmo 1-0 (1-0)/Kean 18/Atalanta – Villareal postponedBayern – Barcelona 3-0 (2-0)/Muller 34, Sane 43/, Musiala 62Manchester United – Young Boys 1-1 (1-1)/Greenwood 9 – Rieder 42/Benfica – Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 (2-0)/Yaremchuk 16, Gilberto 22/Wolfsburg – LOSC Lille 1-3 (0-1)/Steffen 89 – Yilmaz 11, David 72, Gomes 78/Salzburg – Sevilla 1-0 (0-0)/Okafor 50/
