That was a disgrace! FC Barcelona moved into the round of 16 of the Champions League as group winners, but suffered a 2:3 (1:1) defeat at the end of the preliminary round against the previously pointless team from Royal Antwerp.
And: For the first time this season, coach Xavi’s team made two mistakes in a row. Xavi also set a negative record: with six defeats from 14 games, he is the Barca coach with the most Champions League defeats – in percentage terms.
After the defeat against Antwerp, Xavi answered questions: “We are going through a difficult phase, we have to work through it and improve. Nevertheless, even if it wasn’t a good evening, we should be satisfied – because we are in the knockout phase.
In particular, exceptional striker Robert Lewandowski, who had been criticized for weeks, had another evening to forget, made almost no impact and remained harmless in the end.
In the middle of the second half, the former FC Bayern star was substituted for Marc Guiu, who was only 17 years old.
The youngster already seemed to become the match winner, scoring Barca’s supposed winning goal (90+1) in an already furious stoppage time.
But just seconds later, George Ilenikhena, who was the same age, made the sensation perfect for the Belgians, who had been beaten 0-5 in the first leg and had until then had a record of zero points and 3-15 goals after five match days.
Shortly before the break (35′), Ferran Torres equalized the early deficit for the Spaniards through Arthur Vermeeren (2′), before Antwerp, with Bayern’s former aggressive leader Mark van Bommel as coach, took the lead again thanks to Vincent Janssen (56′).
Xavi, in turn, had rotated his starting eleven a lot, leaving out the German international Ilkay Gündogan as well as Joao Cancelo, Pedri, Raphinha and Joao Félix.