The Barcelona is still shipwrecked in Europe

MANCHESTER, England, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Manchester United beat Barcelona 2-1 at Old Trafford and eliminated the Spanish side from the Europa League, allowing the Catalans to lick their wounds again after yet another continental setback.

Last season they also completed the Europa League play-offs after finishing third in their Champions League group, knocked out of Europe’s second-biggest competition in the quarter-finals after losing 3-2 to Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou . .

It is the first time since 1998-99, then under Louis van Gaal, that Barca have failed to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League two years in a row, and only the fifth time that they have been. eliminated in the round of 16. .groups over the past three decades.

After a glorious run from 2005 to 2015, when they won four Champions League titles, Barcelona have failed to progress past the knockout stages of Europe’s elite competition in the past three seasons, having been humiliated 8-2 for Bayern Munich in 2019. -20 quarter-finals.

They have only reached the semi-finals once since winning the Champions League in 2014-15.

Between disappointment and disappointment, Barça fell into a financial crisis aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Restricted by LaLiga’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, they were unable to re-sign Lionel Messi, who left as a free agent for Paris Saint Germain in 2021.

FINANCIAL RULES

Being excluded from Europe is once again weighing on Barça’s finances, whose perilous state has led the club’s board to sell a stake in its television rights and agree to the sale of its audiovisual division as part of various financial levers.

In this year’s budget, Barcelona’s board predicted that the team would reach the Champions League quarter-finals and win the LaLiga title.

It was a bold and overly optimistic view, and Barca now face a big blow to their 2022-23 earnings after being kicked out of the Champions League and Europa League.

This year should have been the year of recovery as the revamped Barcelona, ​​led by new signing Robert Lewandowski, were set to take a new direction.

He is the leader of La Liga with eight points ahead of his faithful rival, Real Madrid, champion of Spain and Europe.

However, their dismal results in Europe tarnished some of the luster of their home performances.

“We have to try again. We come from a very bad base. For the small details, for the competition. We have to focus on next year,” Xavi told Movistar Plus after Thursday’s loss to Manchester United.

“The feeling is that we were better than last season. Against Inter Milan, Manchester United… we played against very important rivals but we didn’t give stature”.

“Next year we have to improve. They are great teams and it is difficult to compete. Next year we will come back stronger.”

(Reporting by Fernando Kallas in Madrid; Editing by Ken Ferris; Editing in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)