‘I can focus on chess and Barcelona on the Europa League’: Magnus Carlsen trolls Barcelona after Champions League elimination
World Chess Champions Magnus Carlsen made a hilarious comment on Barcelona’s exit from Champions League even before loss to Bayern. Carlsen took to Twitter and wrote,” Good thing the Inter game is not close, so I can focus on chess and Barcelona on the Europa League.”
Good thing the Inter game is not close, so I can focus on chess and Barcelona on the Europa League
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) October 26, 2022
Barcelona was eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League for the second consecutive season on Wednesday even before a 3-0 loss at home against Bayern Munich in a game that proved meaningless after Inter Milan defeated Viktoria Plzen 4-0 in the earlier game.
Barcelona needed Inter to drop points, so it began its match at Camp Nou already out of contention as Bayern and Inter secured the top two places in Group C. Barcelona will finish third and earn a Europa League berth. Bayern had already advanced and will be the group winner.
“It’s a shame because we had high expectations in this competition,” Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández said. “It was a complicated group, and everything went against us. This Champions League has been very cruel to us.”
Sadio Mané scored in the 10th minute, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting added to the lead in the 31st and Benjamin Pavard closed the scoring deep into stoppage time to give Bayern its fifth win in five group matches.
“I don’t think Barça were expecting us to be so bold,” Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said. “The team made a statement tonight.”
The failure to advance is yet another humbling setback for the Catalan club, and one that will likely prove costlier than last season as the team went on a spending spree to boost its squad in the hope of recovering some of that money with a deep run in the European competition.
Barcelona will now be consigned to the second-tier Europa League, having lost in the quarterfinals of that competition last season to eventual champion Eintracht Frankfurt.
– With AP inputs
