Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said his team need to leave the disappointment of the Champions League behind as soon as possible and focus on improving their performance to compete for the La Liga and Europa League titles.
The coach did not make any excuses after Barcelona lost 3-0 at home to Bayern Munich in the third group last night, after playing the match after his team had already been eliminated from the competition after Inter Milan’s 4-0 victory over Victoria Plzen earlier last night.
Barcelona won one of their five group matches and will continue in the European League after finishing third in their group for the second year in a row.
“This is our reality and we have to face it,” Xavi told a news conference at the Camp Nou. “Maybe that’s what we needed, to take a hit for growth, today it was already over, it was too late to do anything. The main reason we got there. This situation is our mistakes in previous games, we failed to be decisive in attack, we leave with a really bad feeling but we need to start again to fight for the remaining titles.”
The defeat was another blow to Barcelona after they lost the top spot in the local league after losing 3-1 to Real Madrid in a derby last week.
This came after the 3-3 draw with Inter Milan at the Camp Nou, which made the Catalan team on the verge of exit from the Champions League.
Xavi said: “That match against Inter was the most affecting us and me personally, when we lost control of our destiny, and I think it was really tough for our team, but we have to stay together. Our fans were great tonight, it was great to see more than 85,000 spectators in the stadium.” “The Camp Nou supports us until the end. But we didn’t give them anything to please them on the pitch, there are still other tournaments to compete for. It’s a big blow but we need to criticize ourselves to be able to win those titles.”