Barcelona's impressive run in the Europa League has come to an end yesterday with the tournament still in progress. The spanish side was pushed out of the competition by their German visitor Eintracht Frankfurt. The first leg of the game was played in Germany which ended in 1:1 draw and the Blaugrana was hoping things will fall in their favour when they host the German side. With Blaugrana red hot form in the past couple of weeks, nobody expected them to crashed out of the competition. To start with, the competition is a low league compare to the pedigree of Barcelona yet they still crashed out.
Ever since Xavi took over the club, there have being positive changes. The team improved in form and restoring the respect people once had for the club but yesterday defeat shows Barcelona is still work in progress.
The Blaugrana welcome the German side in the second leg of Europa League Quarter final. Before this game, the Blaugrana has gone fifteen game unbeaten. The German showed from the beginning of the game that they came for business and not going back to Germany without a victory. Filip Kostic put the German side in front on the score line from the penalty spot in the 4 minute. Didn't allow the Spanish side to recover before Rafael Borre made it 2 with long range effort. The German was the better side in the game and they kept pressurizing Barcelona. The first half ended 0:2 in favour of the visitors and both teams went to refresh up and take instructions for second half.
Blaugrana desperate push to score in the second half, Kostic scored again to make it 3 goals for the visitors and 1:4 in aggregate. With time running out, the Blaugrana scored two stoppage time goals but it was not enough to keep them in the competition. The game ended 2:3 and aggregate of 3:4 to make the Visitors progress to the quarter final where they will face West Ham United.
Barcelona Coach reacted after the game when he was interviewed. He said they were disappointed and they disappointed the loyal fans but he didn't see it the as a failure. He also acknowledged the German side deserve the victory and congratulated. He went ahead to blame his side lack of creativity despite have possession of the ball. Now that they are out of Europa League, their attention now is towards making it to Champions League next season and it's possible.
Xavi is a good coach, at least for now and he's doing well. He will build a formidable team and I see Barcelona coming back to good old days when Barcelona was among the elite clubs in Europe. But for now, Barcelona is still work in progress and has lost their glory just like Manchester United.
What do you think of the current Barcelona team and do you think they have what it takes to bring Barcelona back to the glorious days?