may be the arrangement of fate, Bayern Munich has become the "executioner" of Barcelona almost every time. However, from the "Lisbon Massacre" to the two consecutive years of stopping the UEFA Champions League group stage, Barcelona's real enemy is not Bayern . After losing to Bayern by
0-3, Barcelona stopped in the Champions League group stage for the second consecutive year and could only switch to Europa League . For Barcelona fans, this may be an unacceptable ending.
In the summer window, Barcelona invested more than 150 million euros in one go, signing in strong players such as Lewandowski , Rafinia , Conde, Christensen, Alonso , Kexi and Bellerin. Laporta 's goal is to win the Champions League, La Liga , and King's Cup del Rey this season, so as to quickly return to the ranks of giants.
However, before the season was halfway through, Laporta's dream was shattered. So, why did Barcelona get out early?
Yearly Tragedy
Barcelona won the Champions League championship last time in the 2014-15 season. In the next eight seasons, Barcelona created tragedy in the Champions League year by year. It was reversed by Atletico Madrid in the 2015-16 season, it was defeated by Juventus in the 2016-17 season, it was reversed by Roma in the 2017-18 season, it was defeated by 0-4 in the 2018-19 season, it was defeated by Liverpool in the 2019-20 season, it lost 2-8 to Bayern, and it lost away to Paris in the 2020-21 season, and it stopped in the Champions League group stage in the past two seasons.
In the last 14 Champions League games, Barcelona has won 3 wins, 2 draws and 9 losses, and the opponents they defeated are Dynamo Kiev and (2 times) and Bilson won. Even Benfica only achieved 1 draw and 1 loss in both games, which is enough to show Barcelona's true strength.
Bayern became Barcelona's number one nemesis. Barcelona lost all the last 6 matches against Bayern, scoring only 4 goals but conceding 22 goals. Since losing to Bayern 2-8, Barcelona has played against Bayern in the past four times, but has failed to score a goal and conceded 11 goals. Neither Messi nor Bayern, nor yawn, Koman or Xavi, can help Barcelona break this curse.
In fact, it was the Lisbon tragedy that brought Barcelona into a turbulent period, from the chairman, sports director, coach, to core players like Messi and Griezmann, who were forced to leave the team. However, the combination of Laporta, Xavi and Lewandowski still cannot help Barcelona get out of the predicament.
Six major reasons exposed
So, why did Barcelona continue the curse this season? First, Barcelona was drawn into the Death Group. Among the eight teams in the Champions League, Barcelona's group is the only group with three former Champions League champions, Bayern is one of the favorites to win the championship, and Inter Milan is the strongest among the third team.
Secondly, after the summer window, Xavi has not found the strongest match, nor has it fully prepared Barcelona for the Champions League. After 5 Champions League games, Barcelona only scored 8 goals, lower than Bayern (16 goals) and Inter Milan (10 goals). In the two matches against Bayern, Barcelona's luxurious front line did not score any goals, and they even scored 0 goals in the whole game against Bayern at home.
3, Barcelona suffered an unfavorable penalty. In the away game, Dumfries lost 0-1 to Inter Milan. Dumfries handball in the penalty area, but the referee did not award a penalty, which made Xavi very dissatisfied. "Marca " pointed out, "This cannot be used as an excuse, but it also has an impact."
ranked fourth with a bad defense. Even if he lost to Inter Milan away, Barcelona still has a chance to show up. However, when returning to home, Barcelona was scored 3 goals by Inter Milan. After 5 group matches, Barcelona conceded 10 goals, Bayern conceded only 2 goals, and Inter Milan conceded 5 goals. Such a bad defense is obviously unacceptable for a team looking to win the Champions League.
fifth, injury also had an adverse impact on Barcelona. In the match against Inter Milan, Conde, Araujo, Christensen and Bellerin were unable to play, which led to Xavi having to start Pique, and Pique made many mistakes.
No. 6, Xavi's coaching also seems to be a "outsider in foreign wars". In his coaching career, Xavi only achieved 1 win, 2 draws and 4 losses in seven Champions League games.At the same time, Xavi also performed poorly in strong dialogues. In the first 50 games of coaching Barcelona, Xavi's winning rate was even lower than Koeman, and Xavi was only higher than Rijkaard in the Barcelona coach in the past 20 years.
Two major consequences
stopped in the Champions League group stage for two consecutive seasons, causing Barcelona to suffer a heavy blow. Laporta originally hoped to use signings to quickly improve the team's strength, but Barcelona showed no sign of improvement. The two consecutive seasons of the Champions League group stage are enough to say everything.
Secondly, after launching four economic leverages, Laporta's goal is to win the La Liga championship, enter the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and be eliminated early, which means that Barcelona will lose at least 20.6 million. The real problem is that stopping the Champions League group stage for two consecutive years will cause sponsors to question Barcelona's strength and influence. How to face this defeat, Laporta said, "This is a regret, but neither the players nor the coach should be blamed for this. We must look forward because we also have to play in La Liga and other events. This is a young event. We knew from the beginning that we would have ups and downs, and we must prove that we will continue." A year after rushing Messi, Laporta made an irreplicable gamble by starting economic leverage and crazy signings. However, in the face of a club that runs rationally like Bayern, Barcelona's big bet is bound to fail.
