Barcelona needed a beating in order to grow, Xavi says

Barcelona has won only one of its five games in the group and will continue in the second-tier Europa League after ending up third in their group for a second year in a row.

Xavi sought no excuses after Barcelona’s 3-0 home loss to Bayern Munich in Group C. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez said his team needed to leave its Champions League disappointment behind it as soon as possible and focus on improving its game in order to compete for the LaLiga and Europa League titles.

The coach sought no excuses after Barcelona’s 3-0 home loss to Bayern Munich in Group C on Wednesday, a match it played knowing that it had already been eliminated from the competition after Inter Milan’s 4-0 win against Viktoria Plzen earlier in the day.

Barcelona has won only one of its five games in the group and will continue in the second-tier Europa League after ending up third in their group for a second year in a row.

“This is our reality and we have to face it. Maybe that’s what we needed, to be given a beating in order to grow,” Xavi Hernandez told a news conference at Camp Nou.

“Today it was already over, too late to do anything. The main reason that we got to this situation was because of our own mistakes in the previous games, we failed to be effective up front.

“We go out with a really bad feeling but we need to reset and reconnect to fight for the other trophies left.”

The defeat was another blow to Barca after it lost the LaLiga lead thanks to a 3-1 defeat at Real Madrid in ‘El Clasico’ last week.

That came after a 3-3 draw with Inter Milan that left it on the verge of Champions League elimination.

“That game against Inter was the one that hit me the hardest, that was when we lost control of our own fate and I thought it was really cruel for our team,” Xavi said.

“But we need to stick together, our fans were great tonight, it was great to see more than 85,000 at Camp Nou supporting us till the end. Bad thing we didn’t show up on the pitch.

“There are still other tournaments to play. It’s a hard blow but we need to be self critical to be able to win those titles.”