Xavi feels like Barcelona “didn’t compete” against Bayern
The Catalans were dismissed out of hand by Bayern 3-0 at Spotify Camp Nou, on a night that Xavi felt that his team was “affected psychologically” with their elimination at the hands of Inter.
With their last week’s 3-3 draw against
Inter Milan, Xavi’s Barcelona had only a sliver of hope of qualifying for the next round of Champions League in case they won both their games and Inter didn’t win any but those hopes were squashed by Inter’s 4-0 win of Viktoria Plzen just hours before Barcelona were to play Bayern Munich at home and Xavi Hernandez feels that his team was severely affected by that result and their subsequent elimination.
Talking about their loss and the manner of which they were dismissed by
Bayern, Xavi stated:
"Today we didn't compete, we didn't reach their level. [Bayern] were very good, much better, more intense.
"I'm sure that the elimination before the game affected us psychologically. I'm sure it did."
Xavi insisted that their tough draw was a key factor in their elimination and that he and the club will not view this result as a
“failure”
, despite the fact that it is the first time in 23 years that Barcelona were eliminated in back-to-back seasons from the Champions League group stage.
"I understand that from the outside people talk about failure, but from the inside we have a different analysis.
"It's a cruel way to go out of the competition, but if we analyse the other games, I think we deserved more."
alongside teams like Juventus who will lock down a 3rd place in their group by the end of the UCL group stages will drop down to the Europa League to compete in the Round of 32 there.
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