DBasia.news – FC Barcelona’s journey in the 2022-2023 Champions League has ended. The Catalan club ultimately fell in the group C hell group which contained Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, and Viktoria Plzen.
Barcelona only finished in third place which means they were also dropped into the Europa League, behind Bayern (15 points) and Inter (10 points) with one game remaining in Group C. Their absence in the knockout stages has eliminated their chance of obtaining 20 million euros.
Barcelona failed in the Champions League but still has an obligation to win trophies in LaLiga, the Copa del Rey and the Europa League. Even so, the fact that they were eliminated early is unique, considering the spending of their big players in the summer of 2022.
Barcelona signed Raphinha, Pablo Torre, Robert Lewandowski, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Hector Bellerin and Jules Kounde. With that spending they should have competed longer in the Champions League.
Barcelona legend, Henrik Larsson thinks so too. Barcelona should have been able to compete and last longer in the Champions League with a number of these new recruits.
“With a number of Barcelona signings this summer, they should take a step up and compete in the Champions League for real, as they did many years ago,” Larsson said as reported by Football-Espana.
“It’s a huge disappointment that they didn’t qualify. If you are at a club like Barcelona you expect to get through the group stage and also go all the way and win.”
Added by football pundit and former Barcelona striker, Thierry Henry, Xavi’s position as Barcelona coach is still secure today due to his great history with the club. If not him then the current situation could get more complicated and the coach is prone to being fired.
“At Barcelona, there was no time. It was one of the most complicated things. People expect to win now, especially now, they have to win after the summer investment,” added Henry.
“Results are benchmarks, as was the case with Steven Gerrard. They got rid of him quickly, they didn’t let him work to make the team.”
“But yeah, let me tell you if it was another coach at the moment at Barcelona, dealing with what happened, it would have been a volcano even more so than what it is, the volcano would have erupted. But since it’s Xavi, it’s okay,” he explained.