After only managing a 3-3 draw in a Group C match against Inter Milan at Camp Nou on Wednesday night, Barcelona finds itself on the brink of another early UEFA Champions League exit.
Barca entered the game against Inter needing a win to keep its chances of reaching the UCL knockout stage alive. But after getting a late first-half lead thanks to a goal by winger Ousmane Dembele, the La Liga club fell apart in the second half, and it was only thanks to Robert Lewandowski and his two clutch goals that they didn’t lose the game.
With the draw from Inter game, Barcelona is now sitting third in Group C with four points, three less than Inter. However, Inter needs to collect only three more points from their upcoming two games to make it through. One of those games will come at home against Viktoria Plzen, who is yet to get a single point in UCL.
Barca’s head coach Xavi Hernandez appears to have already made peace with the outcome, saying the club will no focus on La Liga.
“It’s bad, I think this Champions League is being very cruel to us,” Xavi told Movistar Plus after the game. “Now it is out of our hands. What is left for us is to turn our attention quickly to Sunday’s El Clasico [against Real Madrid], bounce back, and focus on LaLiga because the Champions League became very difficult and complicated for us.”
Barcelona also failed to make it past the group stage last season, finishing behind Bayern Munich and Benfica in Group E. Prior to that, the last time Barca wasn’t in UCL knockout stage was in 2000–01.
