Xavi Hernandez returned to Barcelona from Qatari club Al Sadd to replace Ronald Koeman as a coach during the 2021/2022 season. He is a legend at the Camp Nou after making more than 500 appearances for Barcelona during his playing days.
The Spaniard’s first season in charge of Barcelona was a mixed bag, winning 21 of his first 38 matches in the Spanish La Liga, while drawing nine times and losing 8.
Xavi failed to rejuvenate Barca’s stalling Champions League campaign, drawing 0-0 with Benfica before losing 3-0 to Bayern Munich as the club failed to escape their group.
Barcelona would then be knocked out of the Europa League at the quarter-final stage by eventual champions Eintracht Frankfurt.
Xavi’s first El Clasico in charge ended in a 3-2 defeat in the Supercopa de España in January, but he got his revenge two months later in the league as Barca smashed Real Madrid 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
He failed to pick up any silverware with Barcelona in his first season as the side failed to make a final across the 2021-22 campaign.
Fast forward to the 2022/23 season, it’s a new look Barcelona side sitting top of the La Liga table having dropped just two points in the opening seven rounds of matches.
Despite being as impressive as he has been domestically, thanks to tactical maneuvers and an expensively assembled squad led by lethal striker Robert Lewandowski, Xavi seems not to get his team going in the Uefa Champions League.
Barcelona started their campaign with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Victoria Plzen and were, surprisingly, favourite in their second game against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena last month, but managed to lose 2-0 despite dominating the game.
Tonight, they were expected to brush aside Inter Milan who are struggling in the Italian Serie A, but lost 1-0, thanks to Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s first half goal.
With just 3 points in the first round of matches, the Blaugrana are in danger of failing to make it out of the Champions League group phase after this latest defeat, their second in three matches.
Xavi’s men have now failed to score in four of their last five Champions League games, and despite Barcelona having almost 70% possession throughout Tuesday’s encounter, it was Inter who had the clearer opportunities on goal in the first half.
Before last season’s humiliation of going down to the Europa League, Barcelona have not failed to advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League in 17 years, after the Catalan side finished third in their group in the 2003 season.
That demotion means Barcelona missed out between €10.53 million and €15.2 million after failing to make the knockout round and it will be disastrous if they fail again to qualify to the next round of the competition considering their poor financial situation.
With the array of stars at Xavis’ disposal, it is expected the former midfielder can get his team firing in the Champions League or face the naked dance in the streets of Catalunya.
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