For the second consecutive season, Barcelona failed to make it to the knockout stage of the Champions League. Considering the role it played in the competition throughout history, but also the amount of money it invested in the previous period, a serious blow for the Catalan club. To make matters worse, the Spanish giants faced the fifth game knowing that they could not even hope to place among the top 16 teams in Europe. Inter were victorious against Viktoria Plzeň on Giuseppe Meazza, thus automatically sending the Catalan club to the Europa League, which had a great impact on the Blaugrana’s new debacle in the collision with the Bavarians.”This was a difficult game, we already knew the result of the Inter game and maybe we didn’t go out on the field with the same motivation,” Pedri said after the match.Years that Barcelona have played in the Europa League:- 1973- 1974- 1976- 1977- 1978- 1981- 1987- 1988- 1996- 2001- 2004- 2022They have never made it past the semi-finals. pic.twitter.com/1sxOHb6Sp7— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) October 27, 2022 However, the Spanish midfielder, one of the younger players in the team, who after a convincing defeat came out to fulfill the obligation of the captain and much more experienced players, did not seek justification for another disappointing game. “Of course, this is a failure. Barca always have to go beyond the group stage and fight for the trophy in the Champions League. We have to improve a lot of things to be able to compete. One of the things we have to improve is our decision-making , composure on the ball and some physical aspects. We need to be more calm when we have the ball, sometimes we rush and often lose possession… We are a very young team and we have a lot of room for improvement. It is clear that we are not good enough to compete in the Champions League ” Pedri concluded.Hello, darkness, my old friendEven his coach Xavi did not hide that the epilogue of the game in Milan affected the performance.”We say goodbye to the Champions League. This is a blow that forces us to be self-critical. I understand that people talk about failure, but we analyzed everything. We made many mistakes, but in other games we competed to deserve more. We have to face reality. I said we have to grow through difficult moments, we have to keep going! The fact that we already knew we were eliminated from the Champions League before the Bayern game affected us a lot. We didn’t compete today, we didn’t reach Bayern’s level,” Xavi is being honest.Joan Laporta, the first man of Barca, who said even after the match with Inter that Xavi and his team must focus on their obligations in the championship, tried to draw positive things from the whole situation and reminded once again that the team still has something to fight for.”The miracle didn’t happen. Inter won and the match was emotionally very complicated for us. You can’t blame the players for anything, they did the best they could. We have to look forward. We knew there would be ups and downs in this the process of rebuilding the team. The message to the fans is – let’s look forward! We have La Liga, we have other competitions… We also have the best fans in the world. Xavi has also given opportunities to young players so that they too can progress.”##NAJAVA_MECA_6757052##Unlike Pedri, Marcos Alonso believes that the team has the quality to compete with the elite.”I think we were ready to compete in the Champions League, but we have to pay attention to the details. Did we fail? We have to talk about this at the end of the season. There is so much more we can fight for.”Marc-Andre ter Stegen did not hide that the elimination from the Champions League was difficult for him.”It hurts. Our goal was to stay in the Champions League. We have to be self-critical, we are the first to want to progress. It’s not easy, we have to focus on La Liga and compete in the Europa League, that’s what we have to do. “
