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Xavi reacts to Barcelona’s disastrous exit from the Champions League.
As his club departed the group stages for the second consecutive year, Barcelona manager Xavi spoke on Barcelona’s dismal elimination from the Champions League and emphasized the difficulty of Group C.
Barcelona will now need to win a playoff game against either a second-place Europa League team or a third-place Champions League team in order to advance to the round of 16 of the Europa League.
Following a summer of reckless spending by president Joan Laporta, their withdrawal from Europe’s top competition is expected to have disastrous financial repercussions as the club could lose out on almost €20 million (£17.5 million).
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Barcelona dropped down to the Europa League for the second season running with a game to spare. Inter’s 4-0 victory over Viktoria Plzen condemned them to their early exit before Bayern ran riot at Camp Nou with a 3-0 victory. When questioned about his side’s elimination from the competition, Xavi pointed towards the strength in Group C.
“We have to face the reality,” he said. “I already said that we have to grow little by little and today there were good things. Today we did not compete on their level. In Munich we were better but today we didn’t compete.
“Today Bayern was better,” he added. “Just as we were better in Munich and we should have won, today they were better. The group was very complicated and everything happened to us in the Champions League.”
As Barca awaits their Europa League fate, they will be forced to play a dead rubber fixture against bottom side Viktoria Plzen. Before that, though, they will attempt to keep up with Real Madrid in La Liga when they travel to Valencia on Saturday.