Ronald Araujo reacts after Barcelona get eliminated from the Champions League

Barcelona’s 2021/22 UEFA Champions League campaign came to an end tonight as they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich away at the Allianz Arena.

Needing a victory to finish second in Group E, the Catalan giants made a decent start but soon lost the initiative as Bayern started imposing themselves on the proceedings. First-half strikes from Thomas Muller and Leroy Sane pretty much sealed the deal for the Bavarian giants before youngster Jamal Musiala added a third in the second period.

The German champions could have scored more if the finishing from some of their players was better as they condemned Barcelona to yet another defeat this season, after having beaten them by the same scoreline on the opening matchday back in September at Camp Nou.

The loss, coupled with Benfica’s 2-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv meant that Xavi Hernandez & co. finish third in the group. They will now drop down to the UEFA Europa League Round of 32.

Reacting to the result, centre-back Ronald Araujo claimed that the aim for the club must be to do well in the Europa League now. “The objective now is to win the Europa League. We are Barça, we must go to compete and win,” the Uruguayan international said.

This is the first time since 2000 that Barcelona have been eliminated from the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. They will also be entering the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League for the first time since 2004.

With Barcelona’s position in the La Liga table also not promising, the Catalans should look at the Europa League as an opportunity to win silverware and seal automatic qualification for the next season’s UEFA Champions League.

Source: BarcaTV+