Barcelona’s journey in the Champions League will most likely end in the group stage, writes HS sports reporter Jan Vilén.
FC Barcelona leads the Spanish football league, and this season the team’s game has already looked like a familiar attacking game in many matches. Club legend Xavi has, as head coach, brought the team back to the top after a short slump – but not on a European scale.
While the balance in the Spanish league is tarnished by only one draw and one conceded goal in eight matches, the balance in the Champions League is really dark.
Four matches, one win, one draw and two losses. Goal difference 8–7.
The latest – and at the same time crucial – setback was seen on Wednesday, when Barça drew 3-3 at home against Inter. The result meant that the Catalan giant’s path in the Champions League will almost certainly end in the group stage.
Bayern Munich have already secured the next place after winning all four of their matches. Inter is three points ahead of Barcelona and in their next match they will face throwaway Viktoria Plzen at home.
If Inter wins the match, it will secure the next place, even if Barcelona beat Bayern at the same time. The reason is that in the case of a tie, the ranking of the teams is decided by matches between themselves.
And there is an event that leaves plenty to be excited about, at least at this stage.
In Wednesday’s draw, Barcelona rose Robert Lewandowski with goals twice to equalize in the last ten minutes. At the same time, the straw for the next place remained intact, probably only until the next round of matches.
Instead, there was more to worry about from the previous meeting between the teams, which Inter won with goals 1–0.
In the match, they were rejected from Barcelona Peter’s scored a goal when the ball hit Ansu Fatin to the hand from the goalkeeper’s save a moment earlier. The verdict surprised many. However, Fati’s hands were so high that the hand error was not interpreted as caused by a natural playing position.
The situation in the last moments, where the ball hit Inter, also caused a lot of criticism Denzel Dumfries hand after touching his head. According to the rules, this situation should have been a penalty kick, but Barcelona didn’t get one.
A draw would have left everything open for the last two rounds, as then the teams would now be level on points.
The purpose of the video referee system (VAR) is to reduce errors, but the interpretability of situations and obvious errors rob the system of credibility. The decision is still made by the person. The price is sometimes really high, and in this case FC Barcelona pays it.
Of course, the group three advances to the Europa League, but that hardly warms up Barcelona.
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