It was coming. It had always been coming.
After a glorious 15 game unbeaten record in the 2022 calendar year, Xavi’s Barcelona has finally crumbled.
While the final result of the game didn’t come as a surprise to many given their subpar performances of late, the way Barcelona left Europe while seeming lost for almost the whole game was a surprise for many and probably a cause for concern for few.
After the 1st leg what Barcelona coach Xavi said in the post match interview can’t be easily forgotten. “The Camp Nou must be a pressure cooker”, the Barca boss said. On Thursday night, it was indeed a pressure cooker – but this time, it cooked Barcelona.
There were flashbacks of the failed Barcelona of the last 3 seasons. Shambolic defending, toothless in attack, slow and predictable passing, a lack of urgency, lack of leadership and personality, a lack of physicality to match the opponent, the lack of a game winning plan, but in truth, these images were all there. Fair play to Frankfurt, they played really, really well but a big shame on Barcelona who couldn’t stand their biggest test of the season under Xavi. They simply were not ready for the level of expectations and pressure that came with the game and that’s probably why they lost.
It maybe a little bit odd to say but it could be argued that Barca’s 4-0 win at the Santiago Bernabéu last month could’ve had a negative effect on the Barca players.
It should be remembered that Xavi’s Barcelona followed a humble approach to every game till after the El Classico.
It might be that the morale-boosting victory over an incomplete Real Madrid side gave the Blaugrana a premature feeling that the club is back among Europe’s elite and gave them a sense of arrogance. As vice-captain Gerard Pique said after the game, we’re back.
Also, it is not uncommon for top teams to temporarily lose that bit of momentum, togetherness and chemistry that help them play at a very high level after an international break. Look no further than Chelsea for an example.
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It might be that the break made the team lose a bit of momentum.
Whatever it was that has brought about these poor performances of late, the club and it’s fan base must not think of this particular defeat as a one-off. It must use it as a reality check.
The truth is that Barcelona probably aren’t quite as good as they thought or saw themselves to be. One needs not to look far to see where they were at the beginning of the season. Therefore patience and a lot of money is required to rebuild this team to the level which it ought to be at.
However, there is no time right now especially for Xavi and co who have to sit down and reflect on what has happened to see where things have gone wrong and find a quick solution because in a crucial month of April with 3 games to play in a space of 7 days, Barca do have a really unforgiving schedule to face.
