Nwosu Chizoba David
Gerard Pique’s infamous uttering of “we are what we are” after Barcelona‘s first loss to Bayern Munich this season say it all. That was reinforced on Wednesday as they lost 3-0 to the Bavarians again.
The Catalans resisted for half an hour, keeping the Germans at an arm’s length and Ousmane Dembele was their brightest spark. Now, Xavi Hernandez will await Pedri, Ansu Fati, and others’ returns, readying for Thursday night action in the Europa League after Christmas.q
Barcelona are going to have to change a lot to stand any chance of winning the Europa League. A lot can change between now and February, and if Xavi can get his ideas across then they should be able to compete.
For now, though, they’re a long way away from that. They could face strong teams like Borussia Dortmund, one of Atalanta or Villarreal, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, West Ham, Real Sociedad, Real Betis and countless others.
Barcelona have become regular victims of Bayern’s, losing six times and winning just once of their seven meetings in the last decade. The Germans have scored 24 goals to Barcelona’s seven, and 14 of those have come in the last three games.
In all, the record is 28-12 in the Champions League and 32-15 in all competitions.
