:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/4GIF5JUH2ND47NFXDKUFY5GIZQ.jpg "Historic elimination: When was the last time Barcelona played the Europa League and how did it go?")
The crisis of Barcelona still on the surface. The culé team fought to accomplish a feat this Wednesday in Munich, but was unsuccessful and, again, the Bayern passed it over (3-0). This is how the Catalans’ adventure in La Liga ended very early. Champions League. Now they must seriously focus on the Europa League, competition to which they return after 17 years.
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The history repeats it self. Barcelona he urgently needed all three points at Bayern Munich and also expected Benfica to lose to Dinamo, which did not happen. The Portuguese team won, secured their qualification to the round of 16 and left the Catalans relegated to third place in Group E.
So, the team that Xavi directs will have to settle for playing the Europa League, which is also not easy at all. The Catalans will seek their first title in that competition, after not having won it before.
The last time in the Europa League
In all its history,.
That time, Barça beat Slovakia’s FK Matador Púchov in the first round with a spectacular win on the aggregate scoreboard (9-1). They then won 3-0 in the first leg and 2-0 in the second leg over Panionios NFC of Greece. Already in the round of 32, he eliminated Brøndby from Denmark with a double win (1-0 and 2-1). However, he did not suffer the same fate in the second round.
Having reached that stage, the culé club had the difficult challenge of overcoming the Celtic, objective that he did not achieve. The Spanish team fell 1-0 in the first leg and drew goalless in the second leg, for which they had to say goodbye to the Europa League that time.
Few believed that Barcelona He would play this tournament again, but he will finally do so after a rather irregular campaign in the Champions League. The Catalans will have to deal with rivals such as Lyon, Leicester City, Monaco, Galatasaray, among others, to fight for a first title in the Europa League.
. Now, he hopes to break his losing streak and bring joy, even a small one, to his fans. In addition, if the Catalans specify the conquest of the trophy, they will ensure their presence in the next edition of the Champions League, something that would be in their best interest when taking into account their presence in LaLiga (7th, six points from the qualifying positions).
Be that as it may, the focus will now be on what Barcelona can do in the Europa League. Xavi’s team needs to redeem itself as soon as possible and what better opportunity than that to start stopping the club’s crisis.
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