This season’s European odyssey for Barcelona is over. In the second leg at Old Trafford, Barca shut down Marcus Rashford, but not the “second callers.” Erik ten Hag waited for Antony to bring something big – a goal worth winning and qualifying further – and it paid off. The Catalan club continued the trend of negative results against teams from the “top five” leagues.Barcelona are really having issues with top teams from the best leagues and Xavi did not correct the mistakes leading to that. The Blaugrana have been left with just one win in their last 15 games, again prematurely relegated from European competitions and will have a reason to do some introspecting at the Camp Nou. They will look for the culprit or justification. Either way, it will be easier for the Catalan giants to get over it if they wish to bring back trophies in their showcases.The English don’t need much to get hyped up – Scholes: United can win four trophies! Ten Hag: My greatest victoryThe elimination by Manchester United did not sit well with Xavi. Still, in the rest of the season it should be easier for him to defend the first place in La Liga from Real Madrid, because Barcelona will continue to play only on weekends.”That goal we conceded for 1-1 caused us enormous damage. Losing the duel was crucial. They are a great team, very dynamic. It’s a shame, we were in control of the game, we felt comfortable. I think it was even at both ends of the pitch and the nuances decided. The details prevailed on their side,” Xavi regrets the missed chances.The Spanish expert was depressed after the elimination from the Europa League, and he wondered the most about how the team would look if they had Pedri and Gavi. He could set up the game in a different way.”Very big disappointment. I think we competed well against a physically powerful team. I’m not sure if Shaw won that duel at 2-1, as he did just before the 1-1 goal. I repeat, that first conceded goal did us a lot of damage. We should have been more patient and calm in the second half, to play through the middle a little more. If Pedri or Gavi had been there, it could have been different in the second half. Sergi Roberto was good, Kessie very good, Frankie too. But for the way we wanted to play, they would mean a lot to us. However, the first half was excellent, it’s a shame.”##NAJAVA_MECA_7050012##The Barcelona strategist is disappointed because of the elimination, but he is also happy that his team was more competitive in Europe than the previous season.”We were better than last season, we performed better. This year we played against Bayern, Inter, Manchester United… They are big teams, they are very strong. Except for Bayern at home, we handled our opponents well. We will come back even stronger. We must be self-critical and try to be more competitive next year.” Xavi concluded.
