Premier League: Declan Rice, Guardiola’s most expensive setback
Barcelona, which is doing very well in the league, is no longer present in Europe after its disillusionment at Old Trafford against Manchester United. This is the reality of the Catalan club under Xavi Hernandez, whose reign is not the one wanted or hoped for by the leaders, although the consultation seems to come for the moment from the first place occupied in LaLiga. But despite this, the Spanish technician has already posted stats that only he has.
Barcelona has just lost for the fourth time in two years in Europe, and this with Xavi on the bench. That is to say that despite all the reinforcements of last summer the club struggles to distinguish itself, and if everyone seems to understand the reversal in the Europa League, the elimination has difficulty to pass. The simplest conclusion seems to be that Barça is not up to the task and Xavi has not managed to find the formula. The overall numbers are there with the two eliminations, but a finer analysis reveals more problems.
Indeed, since his induction, Xavi has played 16 games in Europe in both competitions and the record is bleak. Only four wins, six draws and six defeats. And the wins have come against lesser teams like Viktoria Plzen (twice) and Galatasaray. The only victory worthy of the name was obtained away from home against Napoli. However, when the team had to face top European teams, they succumbed. This is justified by the last game against United and before that against Bayern, Inter and Benfica, not to mention the embarrassing defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt (2-3) in a Camp Nou full of German fans.
It is therefore worth noting that although the club is performing well in the league, it has not been able to maintain the high defensive level it offers in La Liga, where it has conceded only seven goals in 22 games in Europe. Since in these 16 games they have conceded 25 goals and have only been able to keep two clean sheets. Neither the defensive system worked nor Ter Stegen was a savior. Throughout these two years, Barcelona has not been up to the task in these important games, conceding some painful goals like those that Bayern repeated against the azulgranas. And therein lies the relatively good news.
Because even though the club is sinking in Europe, the team has not been humiliated at Old Trafford. On the contrary, it competed with the English team, even if it was not up to the task. And this is the conclusion to be drawn from this elimination. The team is not yet at the level of the European giants, and this is very expensive. Since these defeats also have an impact on the club’s coffers, which lost 14.4 million euros after the elimination against United, the amount that would have been earned if they had won the Europa League. This would have been a way to compensate for the 20 million he lost for not reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League. An amount that was budgeted in the balance sheet and therefore must be counted as a loss and has a direct influence on financial fair play.
