Xavi, and Barça’s recent poor records in Europe reach new low

Xavi Hernandez and Barcelona are currently flying in the Spanish La Liga, but not so in the European club competitions as they hit a new low after elimination in the Europa League round of 32 on Thursday.

Barcelona were bundled out of the Europa League in the round of 32 by Manchester United after an aggregate score of 4-3.

The five-time UEFA Champions League found themselves in the Europa League spot after failing to make it out of a Champions League group consisting of Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, and Viktoria Plzen.

And now ultimately out of all European Competitions in February with attention now shifted to their chase for La Liga, and Copa del Rey double.

Top of the Spanish league with 59 points, 8 points ahead of Real Madrid in second position. In fact, they have only conceded 7 goals in 22 league games.

In contrast, they have shipped in 8 goals in 16 games in Europe. The defeat at Old Trafford ended Barcelona’s 18-game unbeaten run.

This defeat is Barcelona’s worst in the last 4 seasons; in 2020 they got kicked out of the Champions League quarterfinal by Bayern Munich, in 2021 they were knocked out by PSG in the round of 16, and in 2022, and 2023 they failed to make out of the group stages.

After their elimination in the Champions League group stages in 2022 they still made it to the quarterfinal in the Europa League, losing to the eventual winners, Frankfurt.

Despite selling off more than €600 million in assets to fund new signings such as Jules Kounde, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, and more they just sunk into a new low by failing to even make it out of the Europa League round of 32.

Also, Xavi Hernadez’s record in Europe as a manager is also short of standards, he has only won 4 games out of 16 games he has managed – those wins were against (Viktoria Plzen twice, Napoli, and Galatasaray).

With six losses and drawn matches.

This poor form is something he also alluded to during his post-match interview after his defeat to Manchester United.

“The feeling is that we have been better than last season,” he confirmed.

“Against Inter, United… we’ve played against big teams but we haven’t been as good as we should have been”.

“The only positive point is that we have games on Sunday and we have to focus on the two competitions.”

While Xavi, and Barcelona figure out how to end these recent poor results in Europe, they will travel to Almeria this weekend as they continue the domestic double chase.