Bayern beat Barça and Atletico fail in an agonising final
Barcelona said goodbye to the Champions League for the second year in a row at home and with a 0-3 defeat unbefitting of a team that has activated levers and brought together big signings to avoid blank seasons and avoid failing to compete in Europe.
Xavi's side are in the same situation as when the home-grown coach, who seemed to be the saviour of the sporting and institutional debacle, arrived. Bayern Munich is one of the best thermometers of European football. They compete in a league that is not strong, but they know how to fight in Europe. Barça, for the moment, is doing battle in La Liga, but suffers in Europe and, according to Pedri, "we don't have the level for this competition".
Against their latest bête noire, who have won their last 19 games to Barça's only two, Xavi Hernández's side were beaten before the opening whistle. The omens were fulfilled as Inter thrashed Plzen 4-0 to secure their place in the last 16. The Catalan side had nothing to play for and they did just that. Not even with Koundé and Marcos Alonso at centre-back were they able to stop Choupo-Moting, Mané and Upamecano, who gradually cooled down the crowd and the players themselves.
After the game, the squad went to the back where the remaining fans in the stands continued to cheer. A strange communion that did not erase the anger of those who left the Camp Nou with the desire to throw them all out, from Laporta to the last canterano.
The Europa League is a very dangerous trap because those "losers", as Mourinho would say, are important teams like Juventus, possibly Atletico or Ajax who are eager to make amends in Europe's second competition.
Simeone's Atlético de Madrid is slowly returning to the team that the Argentinian coach saved. The one that crawled through La Liga coached by Gregorio Manzano with the label of 'pupas' and capable of everything bad and very little good.
Simeone's leadership with the fans has disappeared and he is already being openly criticised at the stadium gates. It could be his last season and it could be even worse than what happened last night at the Metropolitano.
A stadium that wants to forge its legend on the basis of epic nights was plunged into an absolute failure. The referee blew the final whistle with the score at 2-2 and drama in the stands. The VAR warned after a penalty for hands in the Leverkusen area. After the tension of an unlikely move, Carrasco's shot was saved by Hradecky, the subsequent header hit the crossbar and another shot was cleared off the line by Carrasco himself.
Tragedy swept through the stadium. Once again a Champions League match ended in defeat for Atlético. The two finals against Real Madrid and now a place in the round of 16 that could not be fulfilled in stoppage time.
Simeone was left alone in the centre of the pitch in an image similar to that of Gaspart at the Camp Nou as the handkerchiefs pointed at him. In Atlético's case, the fans who stayed behind did so to cheer on a devastated squad.
There remains another bitter pill to swallow. The trip to Porto has to be about winning because Leverkusen host Brugge at home and a victory for Xabi Alonso's side puts them in the Europa League. Porto know that a German win is a route to top spot if they beat Atletico at home. And if all that comes to pass, the only thing left for the red and white club will be the Copa del Rey and whatever they can scrape together in La Liga over the next few months. A long and impossible desert.
Spanish football has made its worst start to a Champions League season. Only Real Madrid survives. Napoli remains one of the best in Europe after a 3-0 win over Rangers, Liverpool also won 3-0 against Ajax.
Europe raises the level in a strange season that will return in February with a World Cup in between.
