Barcelona on the verge of disaster
Barcelona find themselves stuck 'in the abyss' and 'on the verge of disaster' after a 3-3 draw with Inter Milan in the champions league.
The catalans desperately needed to beat Inter by two clear goals to edge the headto-head with both teams locked in a battle to take the runner-up spot in the group behind German champions Bayern Munich.
It took a stoppage time equaliser from robert lewandowski to keep Barcelona's faint hopes of reaching the last-16 alive.
But Thursday morning's front pages in Spain could only reflect on a 'disaster' of an evening at the nou camp.
MD spoke of a “crazy game” and explained that should Inter defeat Viktoria Plzen at the San Siro later this month, BarIt'S celona will find themselves resigned back to the europa league.
Both Diario aS and Marca went with a gobsmacked Gerard Pique on the cover with the headline: “on the verge of disaster”.
For SPORT, another Barcelona-focused paper, they had a picture of a frustrated lewandowski next to the headline: 'alive by a miracle', after his two late goals spared elimination.
Barcelona made a perfect start when ousmane Dembele scored the opening goal of the game five minutes before half-time.
But Simone Inzaghi's Inter rallied from there and two goals either side of the hour mark from nicolo Barella and lautaro
Martinez turned the game on its head.
lewandowski squared it up at 2-2 eight minutes from time before Inter looked to have grabbed a late winner through wingback robin Gosens in the 89th minute.
Despite a stoppage time header from lewandowski keeping Barcelona's faint hopes of progressing alive, boss Xavi brutally conceded his team do not deserve to be in the champions league. “I'm very disappointed, sad, frustrated, I'm angry,” Xavi said. “I have to be self-critical, we don't deserve to play in the champions league. It hurts me, but it's the truth.
“I apologise to the fans because we made the mistakes, we had set our minds not to fail, and we have failed, so we have to apologise to the fans, who have been wonderful. I want to tell them that we will work to turn this situation around and win titles.” — Dailymail.