Mbappé and Xavi sink Barça on a shameful night
Barcelona have been living a permanent schizophrenia since the day Bartomeu decided to sack Valverde when the team was leading. Since then, every decision since then has plunged the team into an impossible survival spiral at the hands of Joan Laporta and Xavi Hernández. The former does not know how to manage the ruin in which he has found the club and the latter is incapable of managing a squad.
The mirages of the last few games were nothing more than that. Xavi wanted to think that with his departure the team would be liberated and good results would finally come. He even believed it after the play-off against Napoli and the first leg in Paris. But nothing had changed because his ability in front of a bench is nil. His attitude on the touchline is the laughing stock of half of Europe with a collection of dismissals, gestures and comments unbecoming of a club like Barça, not to mention his complaints, moans and excuses in the press room.
Barça went on to beat PSG by two goals. Even if Araújo lost a ball that should not be lost in the Champions League and fell into Barcola's trap, someone should have warned from the bench that there were only 15 minutes to go before half-time. But there was no reaction. The Uruguayan took too long to come off the pitch, aware of the hole he was putting in a team with feet of clay, and that stretched the game too long. Dembélé scored the equaliser in the 40th minute and everything went out of control with yellow cards for Iñigo Martínez and Mbappé.
Meanwhile, Xavi was unable to calm down. In the second half he repeated the embarrassment of the whole season and accumulated another sending off for kicking a Champions League advert a metre away from the assistant, whom he wanted to intimidate with his thuggish attitude. All this was provoked by Vitinha's goal that tied the tie. Nobody was able to bring calm to the team, not even the veterans like Gündogan or Lewandowski. Even Cancelo caused a penalty with the PSG player with his back to the Barça goal. Mbappé scored to make it 1-3 and 1-4 against a discomposed team that was too broken up by the sending off due to the lack of work in these game situations.
Luis Enrique's PSG brought back Hakimi and didn't have much to do. They only had to watch their opponents self-destruct and take their chances. Luis Enrique commented after the game that he was not in favour of protesting so much and that he preferred to give his players peace of mind, a dart at Xavi who was slow to apologise for once again tarnishing the club's image.
In the semi-finals, PSG will meet Dortmund who played Atlético Madrid to their liking. Morata was once again that unreliable striker Spain want to win a European Championship with. He missed a one-on-one in the fourth minute that could have changed everything. The defence is a clamour and the Germans took a 2-0 lead. Simeone's men pulled their nerve and made it 2-2, but that solid defence that the rival coach recalled has long since been extinguished. Two more German goals that could no longer be rebounded from. Griezmann could not pull alone for a team lacking in quality that put the desperation in the boots of Saúl.
The night for the Spanish teams was a nightmare. There was a moment when the semi-finals belonged to Barça and Atlético, but they failed to dominate their games. The defeat is even more painful for Barça who lose a lot of money, specifically almost 50 million because they will not be at the next Club World Cup in 2025, which Atletico Madrid will attend.