Barcelona's Champions League ordeal is over

Barça played their last Champions League game for ten months on Tuesday night. Condemned to the purgatory of the Europa League, victims of their lack of competitiveness and their own mistakes, they are forced to play, starting in February, in the continental second division. Barça ended what has been their worst group stage in history: only two wins in six games. Both, by the way, against Viktoria Plzen, the Czech team that has been unable to score a single point. The Blaugrana achieved an inconsequential victory that only served to add 2.8 million euros to the bank account and to give minutes to the less-used footballers in Xavi's team.

Among them, the young Pablo Torre, who was finally a starter. Torre, who scored a goal, did not have a particularly lucid performance, surely infected by the little football Barcelona strung together. Barça won with the reserves but once again showed that the Champions League is a competition that chokes them, even against theoretically far inferior rivals. This Tuesday put an end to their sad trajectory in the European Cup, making it clear that the team must strengthen itself even more for next season if it wants to have real aspirations of winning the title.

The failure in the Champions League has been a terrible blow for the Laporta and Xavi project. The president has not invested more than 200 million euros in transfers (after activating up to four financial levers) to play in the Europa League. The president's bet was 'all or nothing' with the aim of reviving Barça sportingly, economically, institutionally and in the media. It was about returning to compete with the biggest rivals on equal terms. With real aspirations to opt for all the titles.

And missing out on the Champions League before the round of 16 (for the second successive season) may make it tempting to question every decision made in a hectic summer. The club asks for patience. And expectations are readjusted: now what matters is La Liga. Xavi remains optimistic. And he really believes in the chances of the new Barça that he is building. After the sad farewell to the Champions League, the coach's firm message is the rope that all the Catalans cling to. The hope for a better future.