Gerard Pique’s words of encouragement following Barcelona’s Champions League exit

After his last-minute heroics in the Copa del Rey semi-final against Sevilla, Gerard Pique had to watch his team take on another improbable task, this time without him as he missed out due to an injury.

With a larger deficit to overcome against a tougher opposition at their home, the chances of a comeback remained bleak this time around but what the Barcelona faithful expected from the team is to give their all and fight for the badge until the very end and that is exactly what happened.

In what was the first game of Joan Laporta’s second stint at the club as president, the players put on an authoritative display from the first whistle to the last with chances galore to take home a respectable result which could have been completely different on any other night with better finishing.

Regardless, this was a performance to be proud of and reassured the fans and well-wishers that the club is headed in the right direction. Gerard Pique like many others expressed his belief in the process via his personal Twitter account:

“Great game. A huge merit after the bad result in the first leg. I’m proud for our players. There’s a lot of season still left and we’ll compete until the end. Head held up high and we move on. Vamos”

Even though the Champions League exit has come a lot sooner than expected, as pointed out by Pique, with a good part of the season still left to play and the club maintaining strong positions in the cup and the league, we could very well see silverware at the end of it and after an inspiring performance like this, there should be plenty of cause for optimism going forward.

Article by Yugam Sahni