Barcelona football club were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League group stage after suffering a 0 – 3 defeat in the hands of the rampaging Bayern Munich team at the Allianz Arena yesternight.
The defeat signed off on their worst Champions League campaign in two decades, the Spanish giants have now been condemned to play in the lower UEFA Europa League.
The Catalans went into their final game battling Benfica for the second qualifying spot in Group E and knowing they might well need to chase a result in the Allianz Arena.
But Bayern barely broke a sweat in taking apart Xavi’s men, while the Portuguese side took the necessary three points to send them to the last 16 as runners-up behind Bayern.
Victory for the Lisbon club over Dynamo Kyiv would mean the Blaugrana had no choice to win away to Bayern, who had already taken them apart 3-0 at Camp Nou and were on course to record a perfect six wins out of six.
Benfica duly suffered few problems in dispatching Dynamo 2-0, while goals from Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, and Jamal Musiala ended Barca’s hopes as Bayern romped to a 3-0 win.
Not for 21 years had the Catalans failed to advance past at least the first group stage in the Champions League, with the 2000-01 tournament the last time their campaign ended before Christmas.
Meanwhile, Barcelona will now have to contend with fellow Spanish team Sevilla, who have won more Europa League titles than any other team, Borussia Dortmund, Leipzig, and Porto who are amongst the Champions League teams who dropped to Europa League.
