Catalan Club Barcelona will play in the UEFA Europa League for the first time in 17 years after exiting the group stage of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night.
The Catalans needed a miracle in their last team game to advance to the knockouts, but fired a bit angrily at Bayern Munich and were knocked out of the continental club competition after their second 3-0 defeat to the Bavarians this year. alone.
And now they face a humiliating, unbelievable prospect of playing alongside Eintracht Frankfurt, Rangers, and West Ham United.
Barcelona last qualified for the UEFA Europa League in 2004, under the tutelage of Frank Rijkaard.
And they did not separate well at the time, coming out in the fourth round against Celtic 1-0 after everything was combined in a game that saw Xavi Hernandez play in the first XI and Joan Laporta as the club’s president.
The difference that season was that they had booked a place in the tournament, and this season they were relegated as happened in 1998/98, 1998/99, and 2000/01 seasons.
The Europa League tournament will take place between February 17-24, and the selection of matches will be closely monitored.
Barcelona will need to improve their European games in this campaign which has seen them score just two goals in six group games – both of which face a junior team Dynamo Kyiv.
Given that Bayern Munich have scored 22 goals in six games, it shows a huge difference between the two clubs.
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