Barcelona is one step away from another blemish, Plzen can help knock it out in Europa League

This is definitely not what they expected in Catalonia. President Joan Laporta sold off half of the club in the summer to bring in reinforcements and put everything on one card – success this season should bring Barcelona new profits. But the Blaugranas will most likely fall back into the Europa League after a year.

When the group Bayern, Barcelona, Inter, Plzen was drawn, it was somehow expected that Plzen would be the underdog, Inter would secure third place and Bayern and Barcelona would share the top spot. But that’s not the case.

Barcelona have only managed to beat Plzen in four games, losing to Bayern and Inter, who they drew with in the return leg. And it has one foot, almost the other, in the abyss.

Before the last two matches, it has three points less than Inter and the Italian team only needs to get at least 3 points in the duels with Plzen and Bayern. Thus, if Inter beats Plzen at home in the next round, they will secure their qualification to the Champions League eight-finals and condemn Barcelona to the Europa League.

The Blaugranas would have to beat both unpopular Bayern Munich and Plzen and hope that Inter lose points in both games. That’s already pretty much unrealistic.

Barcelona would be relegated to the Europa League for the second time in a row. A huge embarrassment that no one at Camp Nou wanted to admit. It was thought that last year’s relegation was the cause of a poor season and a weak squad. But in the summer Barcelona spent the second most in the world, brought in Lewandowski, Raphinha, Koundé and others and it still wasn’t enough.

The cruel Champions League

“We have to think about El Clásico now because the Champions League is already very complicated. It’s a shame,” Xavi said after the game.

“This Champions League is very cruel to us. In Munich, in Milan, today…,” complained Xavi. Yet he can actually be thankful that there is still a mathematical chance for Barcelona.

In the second half, Inter twice went 2-1 and 3-2 up, and at 3-3 on set pieces, Lautaro Martínez went alone on goal and had a completely free teammate on his left. All he had to do was pass and he would have cleared it into the empty net, but the Argentine decided to finish on his own and ter Stegen still saved the Catalans from being completely eliminated.

Source: UEFA, Barcelona