Xavi accepts the fact that Barcelona must play in the Europa League

DBasia.news – For the first time since the 2000-2001 season or 21 years ago, FC Barcelona failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage. The bitter reality must be accepted by the Blaugrana this season.

Being in Group E of the Champions League with Bayern Munich, Dynamo Kiev, and Benfica, Barcelona finished third in the standings and dropped into the Europa League. Barcelona only won twice of their two matches against Kiev.

Half of Barca’s matches are still being coached by Ronald Koeman and in the last three games Xavi has come as a substitute for Koeman. Despite his status as a club legend, Xavi was unable to change Barcelona in a very short period of time.

When they visited Bayern’s headquarters, which had already qualified for the knockout stages, Barcelona did not move with a 0-3 defeat to goals from Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, and Jamal Musiala. Barca also lost control of the ball and only released two kicks.

Xavi accepted the fact that Bayern are better than Barcelona, but he doesn’t see the Europa League as a place for Barcelona.

“They (Bayern) are better than us. This is the reality we are facing. We are in the Europa League. A new era begins today,” said Xavi as quoted by Movistar.

“Barcelona do not deserve to be in the Europa League, their place is in the Champions League. We are starting over from zero,” added the former Al Sadd coach.

The record of two goals from six Champions League group matches is also the lowest, plus only in the 1997-1998 season Barca conceded more than nine goals in the group stage. The last time Barca played in the Europa League was in the 2003-2004 season.

Now Xavi’s focus is not only on raising the team’s performance to catch up to the top flight in LaLiga (currently in seventh place), but also participating in the Europa League. This season is also the first season Barca have played without Lionel Messi who went to PSG.