Xavi’s challenge in Europe

Xavi Hernández has before him the possibility of classifying the team in the semifinals of the Europa League. To achieve this, he will have to ‘deal’ with one of the few bad dynamics that resist him. And it is that in the three games he has played in Europe, he has yet to win, ending all three games in draws.

The first was practically when he had not yet been able to settle on the bench, since a few days after being officially presented, they were seen with Benfica on the fifth day of the league Champions, with the urgent need to win if he wanted to qualify for the round of 16. It was his second game as coach – the first had ended with a narrow victory at the Camp Nou against Espanyol (1-0) -. Nevertheless, in this second match it did not go from a tie to zero, leaving the doors open for the Portuguese team to qualify: they only needed to win at home against Dinamo kyiv, while Barcelona visited Bayern at the Allianz Arena on the last day.

The second match at the Camp Nou was part of the Europa League and with a substantial rival, Napoli, who occupied one of the first places in Calcio. The Neapolitans went ahead in the first half with a goal from Zielinski, leveling the match, after the break, Ferran Torres, from a penalty.

And the third had the Turkish Galatasaray as its protagonist, who also achieved a meritorious goalless draw in the first leg, despite the numerous occasions that the Blaugrana team had, leaving the tie open for the second leg in Istanbul, where the team managed to win 1-2, with goals from Pedri and Aubameyang.

In fact, this season the balance of goals at the Camp Nou in Europe is simply bleak. With Xavi, only one goal has been added in three games, while with Koeman a goal was recorded in two games: the one scored by Piqué against Dinamo (1-0). Thus, in this course, the culé fans have only seen two goals at home in European competition, something simply unheard of, taking into account the offensive potential of the blaugrana.