On Tuesday, some Barcelona fans mistakenly threw stones and bottles at their own bus as it made its way into Montjuïc. The huge club badge and massive “Barça” written on the side were not enough of a clue. In fairness, they might not have seen that through the crowd and all the smoke. As for the metaphor, the self-inflicted damage, that was harder to miss
By the end of the night, Barcelona were out of the Champions League, failing to reach the semi-final for a sixth successive season. Against Paris Saint-Germain they had competed, which genuinely was something, and Xavi Hernández was busy telling the referee, Istvan Kovacs, he had been a “disaster”.
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Xavi was sent off and so was the centre-back Ronald Araújo after only half an hour. PSG’s third goal came from the penalty spot after a challenge that João Cancelo, who committed the foul, admitted was “infantile”.
Xavi was furious about Araújo’s red, but the goalkeeper Marc André ter Stegen watched it during the post-game interview and had to admit that, yes, it was a sending off. Ilkay Gündogan went further, questioning the wisdom of making the challenge in the first place. Going a man down that early killed them, he said.
Defeated 4-1 by Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup final and 4-2 by Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey quarter-final and now out of Europe having conceded four more at home to PSG, Barcelona were left with only the league. And that too is on edge: on Sunday they travel to the Santiago Bernabéu, eight points behind their great rivals with seven games left. Lose and it is done, draw and it is done. Win and it is probably done too.
