Xavi: Expectations are high for us in the Champions League because in the last stage Barcelona won the LM four times in ten years

The Champions League is a hot topic in Barcelona at the moment. The Catalans have already dropped out in the last two editions in the regular group, at least they have been waiting for the final since 2015. But according to Xavi, the high expectations are due to the great successes of previous years.

Since 2005, Barcelona have always been among the biggest favourites to win the Champions League. Not when they had one of the best footballers in history, Lionel Messi, in their squad.

But since 2015, somehow everything has changed. It was then that the Catalans won their last trophy, when the MSN trio of Messi, Suárez, Neymar were on a rampage in attack. It was expected that more trophies could come very soon, but the opposite happened.

They established a dynasty in the hated Madrid, where they dominated the next 3 editions. Barcelona in all three editions dropped out in the quarter finals. A year later, they finally reached the semi-finals, only to have the famous collapse with Liverpool, the turn from 3: 0 to 3: 4 and they were done.

And then it got worse. In the 2019/20 edition, Barcelona took a legendary 2:8 beating from Bayern, and a year later, they even crashed out in the eighth round. But even that wasn’t the bottom.

The following two editions, the Blaugranas didn’t even make it out of the group. First they were stopped by Bayern and Benfica, last year it was Bayern and Inter. So the hunger for some success in the Champions League is huge in Catalonia.

“The bar is set very high, which is a consequence of Barça’s performance in recent years. In the last ten years of the previous era, four Champions League titles were won. The expectations are brutal. We inherited a great season,” Xavi said at a press conference.

Fortune has favoured Barcelona this time as they will face Antwerp, Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stage. If the Catalans fail to advance this time, it would be a huge fiasco.

Source: MARCA