Barça's lack of class ruins their image against the worst team in the Champions League

The match in Antwerp that closes the historic Champions League group stage after 30 years turned out to be a nightmare. The fact that the team had qualified for the last 16 after two years in the Europa League in December was enough for Xavi, but what the coach did not expect was that the thunderbox would open in an inconsequential match against the worst team in the competition who had not taken points in five games.  

The call-up for that game was already a problem for the coach who suffered leaks from the board to Rac1 that Joan Laporta had asked for Lewandowski, Gündogan and Araújo, who were not originally named, to be included in the squad. Xavi stammered at the pre-match press conference in response to this information and commented that the list was "agreed" with Laporta and Deco. The new sporting director said minutes before the clash that the call-ups are Xavi's responsibility and deflected interest to an alleged logistical change to sleep an extra night in Antwerp.  

As if that wasn't enough, Xavi had to admit that Lewandowski and Gündogan travelled to the last Champions League game because he had been told they were fit to play. The attrition of the coach by the club is part of the self-destruction that Barça has been experiencing for some time now. The other reading of this situation is that Deco has been the Jiminy Cricket that Laporta needed to force out a coach he never wanted.  

In all this, the players live in their own world and are always on the defensive. "They want to destroy us" was Ferran Torres' phrase at the end of the match. A player who was harsh with the media and who took the side of the Barcelonistas who are permanently offended and who blame the environment for all their ills.  

The defeat leaves Xavi as Barça's worst Champions League coach with 40% of defeats. Even Koeman has better numbers. The Catalan coach continues with the mantra that the team is under construction and remembers that they have played and lost in the Europa League the last two seasons. What Xavi does not remember is that the two European defeats were with him on the bench and that Michel's Girona started to build four months after his Barça and is now leader of the Primera and that with that game that Xavi longs for so much he scored four goals in Montjuic.  

There is nothing to keep Xavi at Barcelona. Only a millionaire's compensation that the club cannot pay and even less now that they have lost 2.8 million euros after the defeat in the Champions League. Money that they will earn when they travel to Texas after the last game of the year to play a friendly match for which they will pocket 4 million euros and that nobody wants to play at the club. Only Laporta.  

The Champions League defeat shows the seams of a broken team. The youngsters go one way and the veterans the other, in clear dissent with Xavi. De Jong wanders around the pitch, Lewandowski has let himself go and against Antwerp he didn't even get a shot on goal and Gündogan is capable of coming out to the media to say that defeats don't hurt and when they lose there are teammates who prefer to upload photos to Instagram.  

Barcelona's self-destruction is worthy of study. Already with Messi and Bartomeu strange things were happening that have been confirmed with the arrival of the all-powerful Laporta who dares to put his hand even in the call-ups.  

Barcelona will be in the first draw of the draw in Nyon next Monday. That is all that interests the soçi who have been living under anaesthesia for years and who are not affected by Messi, Negreira, Laporta, Xavi, or the fact that the Generalitat prevents them from showering in their own stadium..... Only to protect themselves from a supposed conspiracy that wants to destroy the club at all levels. There will be a day when there are no excuses left to make, then they will have to look inside and point the finger of blame.