It’s official: Barcelona will play Europa League after being eliminated from the Champions League

Barcelona could not reach its goal of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday. In another discreet presentation of the season, the Barça team lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich at the close of the group round and will have to settle for participating in the Europa League.

The team led by Xavi Hernández finished Group E with seven points, the product of two wins, one draw and three losses, and occupied third place. His direct rival -Benfica-, on the other hand, beat Dinamo Kiev and got among the sixteen best teams in the most important club tournament on the ‘Old Continent’.

Now, Barcelona must prepare to face a tough road in the Europa League. As there will no longer be a round of 32 phase as in other years, the Catalans will access the preliminary round of the knockout phase and, from there, they will try to fight for a ticket for the round of 16.

The early goodbye of the Catalan team, foreseeable for many, is a hard blow not only at the sporting level, but also financially. “Being eliminated is for the entity a hard economic blow of 20.2 million euros “, account Supersport.

Barcelona’s last time in the second European competition in order of importance happened in the 2003-04 season, that is, for seventeen years, when it was called the UEFA Cup. That time, Xavi was part of the Barça squad.

The situation of the Catalans is not good in LaLiga either. With twenty-three units, Barcelona is seventh, sixteen behind the leader Real Madrid. His next opponent, on Sunday December 12, will be Osasuna.