UEFA Champions League : FC Barcelona fail to reach the last 16 for the second consecutive year

Not just FC Barcelona fans but followers of the UEFA Champions League were left in shock when the 6-time champions suffered yet another humiliating exit from the Champions League group stages. The story remained the same for Barca despite some influential arrivals and exponential off loadings.

In the recent years, the Spanish outfit has become a subject of cruelty for Bayern Munich and just like last season, both met again in the group stages this year. On both occasions or in 4 of the group stage fixtures, the German champions hammered an aggregate of 11 goals and aided for Barcelona’s Pre-mature Champions League exit. In fact in their last 6 matches, Bayern won every game and bagged unbelievable 22 goals where as Barca only scored 4 on the way.

🔹 Bayern win Group C
🔹 Inter into round of 16#UCL pic.twitter.com/kNsA2PQMDJ

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 26, 2022

Last night when both the teams met at the Spotify Camp nou stadium, it took Bayern munich only 10 minutes to get on the score sheet through an extraordinary finish by Sadio Mane, who replaced Barca’s new number 9 Robert Lewandowski earlier in the summer transfer window. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting doubled the lead in the 31st minute and Benjamin Pavard sealed the deal with a strike at 90+5.

🇨🇲 Choupo-Moting has scored in four consecutive games in all competitions for the first time in his career ⚽️#UCL pic.twitter.com/a3e0KXZg0e

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 26, 2022

However, the Poland Captain was not the only one to sign for Barcelona this year. Head coach Xavi signed a number of players like Jules Kounde, Marcos Alonso, Raphinha, Frank Kessie and Andreas Christensen for hefty sums in spite of their financial restrictions. However, Xavi is yet to formulate a well-balanced core playing eleven that can compete at the highest level in Europe.

Big teams fail to reach the last 16 of Champions League

The Catalonians were not only big team to head out of the Champions League and relegate to the second tier of European football. La Liga outfit Atletico Madrid, Italian Giants Juventus and Sevilla are all set to feature in the Europa League knock-out round play-offs.

⏰ RESULTS ⏰

Football remains undefeated.

Inter, Liverpool and Porto qualify 🥳#UCL

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 26, 2022

A lot was expected from FC Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski, who forced an exit from the Bavarian giants earlier this summer. His former employers had the last laugh as he was kept quite by the Bayern defense on both of the games. However, Lewandowski is settling well in the Spanish top-flight as he has found the back of the net 12 times already and provided 4 assists in 11 La Liga outings.

But his performance against his former employers was least expected. Lewandowski was one of the core members of the Bayern team that slashed 8 goals against Barca but failed to get on the score sheet this time around. Although, it was always going to be a tough game for him given the fact that he has spent over 5 years playing for Bayern so the players did know a thing or two about his strengths and weaknesses.

With this win, Bayern manager Julien Nagelsmann has overtaken Jose Mourinho in terms of more wins against FC Barcelona with 4 wins out of 4 matches. Nagelsmann has a 100% win record and under him, Bayern did not concede a single goal against Barcelona.