Time heals all wounds.
For culers around the world, it’ll take until the dawn of a new season to fully recover from the trophyless disappointment of this one.
In the span of a week, Barcelona’s new found hope and optimism were shattered.
A surprise run to the Champions League quarter-finals. Heading into the second leg with a one-goal lead that grew to two within the opening minutes at the Estadi Olímpic.
An unbeaten run in La Liga, dating back to January 27th, the day that Xavi announced he would step down as manager at the end of the season after a shocking 5-3 defeat at the hands of Villareal.
Things weren’t just looking up, Barca fans were dreaming of the impossible.
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In the blink of an eye, it all came crashing down.
What if Ronald Araujo just let Bradley Barcola through?
Would Barcelona have made it through to semi-finals?
Would they have had the confidence and backbone to see out the victory against Real Madrid, keeping their hopes alive in the domestic title race?
In my mind, it seems very possible, if not likely.
Momentum matters. The Champions League will make a hero out of you, or give you the harshest reality check before you have the chance to process the reversal of fortune.
But Barcelona, as a club, seems to have these moments of existential contemplation more often than they would like. The fact that you have to even ask these questions should be a sign that something is amiss in their way of going about the business of the game.
Real Madrid, and I’m not going to mince words here, is more than happy to play ugly. And that’s exactly what they are. They don’t play for the love of the game.
Manchester City gave us poetry for 90 minutes, but they weren’t rewarded for it. True art, so often, manifests as tragedy.
Instead, Real Madrid won the penalty kick lottery.
Barcelona lost the lottery of what color card comes out of the referees pocket.
And then, later in the week, when the two teams met head to head, as it was for the second time in one La Liga season, Barcelona squandered a lead, and gifted their historic rivals the Spanish championship.
But that’s also where the question of luck or merit starts to shift.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say Real Madrid are the protagonists of the story. They really aren’t the good guys. They’re simply the perfect heel.
They sit back, antagonize, get in your head, and wait for you to self-destruct.
That’s exactly what Barcelona did, not once, but twice domestically.
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For Manchester City, it wasn’t quite so dramatic, but they did beat themselves by allowing the match to go the distance, instead of going for the knockout when they had the chance.
So who’s to blame in all of this, and could Barcelona have done anything differently to affect the outcome?
Xavi, for his part, hadn’t put a foot wrong for months.
His high-profile decision to publicly announce his departure seems genius in hindsight. He said he was doing it for the love and benefit of the club, and that’s exactly how it played out.
Barcelona could have been out of the Champions League in the round of 16, and the league campaign could have been over much sooner, given the path they were on at the start of the year.
Instead, they recovered their confidence, and got out of their heads. The manager was a liberated man, and his players, in spite of continued injuries to key teammates, hit the field with a nothing to lose mindset as well.
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And the results kept coming.
Ronald Araujo’s red card, however, exposed yet again, some uncomfortable truths.
When faced with adversity, Barcelona doesn’t respond well.
Xavi’s decisions in the match can be fairly scrutinized. They still had a two-goal lead, and by the end of the match, within 60 minutes, they surrendered four goals.
Once again, against Real Madrid, when the pressure was on, they let their advantage slip away.
It was a nightmare of a week for Joao Cancelo, and the defensive line in general.
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But we also know that individual mistakes don’t exist in a vacuum.
PSG came out of the gates on the front foot. Araujo’s red card came after a bad give away.
Real Madrid had everything to play for, and in the end, Barcelona couldn’t muster enough desire to suffer for the result. They gave up the lead not once, but twice.
And yet, in the totality of his tenure as manager, Xavi seems to be gradually shifting the self-image.
Yes, there have been steps back, but perhaps there have been more steps forward.
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He didn’t win a La Liga title by accident. In the wake of two truly disastrous years where the team looked competitively paralyzed, he woke them up from the coma, and got the fire back in their belly.
Surely, no one is more frustrated than Xavi in the outcome of this season.
It’s true that some of the same old ghosts returned. But we’ve also seen the clouds part and the light shining through in Barcelona again.
Going forward, the club will have to shake off the self-fulfilling prophecy of always being doomed to bad luck.
Playing beautiful, dominating football, is what’s brought them success in the past.
And in the future, quality on the field will be the path forward as well.
Fortunately, La Masia continues to bear fruit.
Let those wounds heal. Next season, and beyond, Barcelona will be back and ready to compete for everything.