Knowing that we were already practically eliminated before the game affected us mentally, Xavi explained the failure

Barcelona failed to beat anyone from the pair of Bayern Munich and Inter in the fourth match besides Viktoria Plzen. One draw and a win over the Czech side thus condemned Barcelona to the Europa League for the second consecutive season, the playoffs of which they will play in the spring.

“Today we couldn’t keep up with Bayern, we didn’t reach their level. They were very good, much better than us. But I’m sure the fact that we knew we were already eliminated before the game affected us mentally,” Xavi sad in a post-match interview.

Inter, like everyone else in Group C, toyed with Plzen, whom they beat 4-0. The Czech team is now without a point before the last match and with a score of 3::20. In the last match they will welcome Barcelona, against whom they could score points. Xavi is not expected to send the strongest possible line-up.

“To be honest, I still believe we can and will win a trophy this season,” Xavi says, looking ahead to a future that is still promising. That success could be the triumph in the aforementioned Europa League.

But even there, Barcelona will not have it easy, with strong competition from Arsenal, Manchester United, Sevilla and perhaps Juventus or Atlético Madrid.

The key moment was the double-duel with Inter, when first after a good performance they pressed the Italian side most of the time, but without the goal joy.

After that, the Catalans lost the second match as well, when Robin Gosens scored a goal at the very end of the match to make it 2: 3. Even Robert Lewandowski’s goal in injury time did not make any difference to the fact that progress was miles away.

“It’s cruel to leave the Champions League, but if we analyse some of our games, we deserved more,” Xavi lamented the missed chances.

Barcelona can now concentrate on La Liga, where they are just three points behind leaders Real Madrid, to whom they recently lost in a friendly.

After that, however, Xavi’s charges managed two tough matches against Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal, from which they came away with a 7-0 win. Everyone must remember that many new players arrived at the Camp Nou in the summer and so everything cannot go without saying.

Therefore, the group of death was already too much for Barcelona, but there are still a number of other competitions where the Catalan team will definitely play an important role.

Sources: UEFA, FC Barcelona