Xavi insists Barcelona are Europa League 'favourites'
Xavi insists Barcelona are Europa League ‘favourites’ after dropping down from the Champions League – but concedes it will be ‘very tough’ after last season’s quarter-final exit to Eintracht Frankfurt
- Boss Xavi insists Barcelona will now be ‘favourites’ to win the Europa League
- The Catalan giants crashed out of the Champions League in the group-stages
- They will face a play-off tie to qualify for the last-16 stage of the Europa League
Xavi has insisted that Barcelona are now favourites to win the Europa League after their disappointing early Champions League exit.
The Catalan giants finished third in Group C of Europe’s elite competition behind Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, meaning they failed to reach the last-16, and will now drop into the Europa League.
Barca will now face a play-off tie in order to even qualify for the last-16 of the secondary European competition where they could come up against the likes of Manchester United or PSV depending how the final group-stage fixtures go.
Xavi insists Barcelona are favourites to win the Europa League after Champions League exit
Boss Xavi (pictured) knows it will be ‘tough’ as his side face a play-off tie to enter the last-16
It will be only the second time since 2009 that Barcelona will feature in the Europa League, having played and crashed out of the competition last season at the quarter-final stage to eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt 4-3 on aggregate.
‘There is still a very nice Europa League. Our goal is to reach the final and win it. I understand that they label us as favourites,’ Xavi told the media via Goal after his side’s 4-2 win over Viktoria Plzen.
‘We are forced to try to win the Europa League, but we saw last year that it is a very complicated competition. With the teams that there are this year, it looks very tough.’
The Catalan giants lost in the Europa League quarter-finals to Eintracht Frankfurt last season
Xavi’s side will not begin their Europa League campaign until February 16, although the draw for their play-off tie will take place next week (November, 7).
Barcelona will face one of the teams that finished as runners-up in the Europa League group stages.
The Spanish giants at least managed to finish their Champions League campaign on a high note with a 4-2 victory over Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday evening, although they only mustered two wins out of six matches in the competition this season.
Barcelona ended their Champions League campaign on a high with a win over Viktoria Plzen
They failed to beat either Bayern or Inter making it hard for them to ever have much chance of progressing into the knock-out stages.
Xavi added: ‘The feedback is negative. This stage had its moments, and we didn’t take our chances.
‘Bayern Munich and Inter did. We couldn’t win in Munich or Milan. This is the balance in the end.’
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