Is this rock bottom or simply the pain caused by hitting a rock outcrop halfway down the fall? We do not know. Barcelona lie somewhere between broken, breaking or in the earliest stages of a long road to redemption, depending on your optimism. But there are grim markers of their descent: for the first time in 21 years, they have exited the Champions League at the group stage. Super League? Not so much. Try Europa League for a double dose of karmic punishment.
The hope in Barcelona, and within those who follow this club in virtually every country of the world, is that they will talk about this season in another two decades’ time. They will muse about just how badly their club was allowed to crumble. They will test each other to remember the XIs that were twice brushed aside by Bayern Munich like an also-ran from Eastern Europe or Scandinavia, and they might well forget Oscar Mingueza and Luuk De Jong. In hindsight, despair can become a new beginning. Right now it feels like a dismal end.
It’s easy to scoff at the notion that Barcelona are having it tough. Football’s food chain is so ingrained that it disallows sensible comparison. Barcelona are struggling, but what of Norwich City? Norwich City are struggling, but what of Derby County? Derby County are struggling, but what of Bury? With such an emphatically stratified club game, there’s always someone worse off than you.
But then that misses the point. This is not a question of financial apocalypse (although that wasn’t out of the question for a while) or relegation, but the sorry sight of gross wastage. Barcelona were the bigger boy provided with a gun for the knife fight that still ended up losing. They enjoyed the advantages of historical significance, the greatest player in the world, a global fanbase and a domestic broadcasting deal weighted heavily in the favour of a ring fenced cabal, and they lie in a heap on the outside of Europe’s elite.
More from Football
For better and worse, Rangnick's Man Utd youngsters still play like a Solskjaer side08 December, 2021
Conte says Spurs staff are 'scared' as Rennes match postponed after Covid outbreak08 December, 2021
Man Utd teenager Iqbal makes history as Rangnick names him in Champions League squad08 December, 2021On the evidence of their group stage campaign, they should not be sorry to miss out on the Champions League knockout rounds; it would have ended in empathic defeat before long. They finished 11 points behind Bayern Munich, a supposed peer, in a six-game campaign. Given that they are seventh in La Liga having won six of their 15 league matches, the Europa League might provide the most likely route back into European football’s premier competition. But they are no certs to win that either.
Of course, they deserve this humbling outcome. This is a lament borne out of exasperation, not sympathy. They were given every possible advantage in Munich, the return of Geisterspiele – literally “ghost games” – removing any atmosphere in the Allianz Arena and Bayern with little to play for but a 100 per cent record. It was still no contest. With the ball, Barcelona created one or two chances but looked beaten as soon as Thomas Muller’s header crossed the line. Without it, they pressed haphazardly in ones and twos rather than as a unit.
There is hardly any cause for celebration in Bayern’s dominance. They are reflective of a Champions League in which superiority often comes as standard. Before this season, teams had won six group games out of six seven times in Champions League history; three have managed in over the last three months. If Ajax offer a wholesome antidote, wait until their players and manager get picked off by Europe’s elite for the second time in three years.
Before the game, Gerard Pique described Bayern as the best-run club in Europe, but he should speak to those supporters who have fervently protested against the club’s sponsorship arrangements with Qatar, to no avail. We cannot doubt the strength of their first team nor their grand designs on winning this competition again, but this is not a world where good guys last long. At least they have the decency to be brilliant to watch.
And that’s the real tragedy with Barcelona. Somewhere along the way they became the worst of both worlds. They are not wholesome; no club that makes a naked power and money grab for a Super League project when already in a position of colossal privilege can claim that. But if you aren’t going to be one of the good guys, the least you can do is be good. Barcelona relinquished that honour in a wave of financial mismanagement, felled by the sour poison formed when arrogance and naivety are blended.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3pGO9sE
Post a Comment