Barcelona said goodbye to the Champions with a full-blown humiliation. A year after being overwhelmed in Turin by Juventus was destroyed in the Eternal City by Rome, which traced him 4-1 at Camp Nou in the saddest night of the Valverde era. It was, simply, a broken toy at the hands of a rival who sought the miracle ... And who found it on its own merits. Unworthy of his greatness, Barca deserved the disaster.
It was, without a doubt, the worst match that Barça remembers this season. His return to Italy in a knockout match in Champions recalled the collapse he suffered a year ago in Turin against Juventus, who defeated him by a 3-0 in Rome flew over the environment for many minutes. That in fact it would not have been a surprise. He appeared with the intention of controlling Valverde's team and found an enraged rival, who turned the pressure into a nightmare, forcing him to play long, splitting the group in two and motivating that there was no control whatsoever. Follow premium soccer bettings and bet on your favourite team.
So it was that he just needed two arrivals and six minutes Roma to launch the first warning that meant the 1-0. A long ball to Dzeko, a dismissal of Umtiti, the delay of Jordi Alba and the Bosnian finished off less than at pleasure before the despair of a Ter Stegen incredulous before the play. Badly the matter began for the Barça and worse continued because that goal did not wake him up, but it gave him more verve if possible to a revolutionized Rome and that surpassed him in all facets. Busquets saw them and wished to maintain the temperament but by his side Sergi Roberto did not appear, Rakitic neither multiplied and Iniesta was a shadow. Messi, who came down to defend with the face of very few friends, was not enough to give life to the team and Suarez ... It was a simple island surrounded by nothingness. A disaster in every rule.
EQUAL OR WORSE Barça resisted until the break with baseball to survive and giving those first 45 minutes as the worst that existed sighed thinking that the situation should improve in the second half. An uncertain suspicion. Pushed by the clamor of their fans and the hope of aspiring to sleep, Roma appeared with equal ambition in the second act and after three arrivals, another Dzeko ball in the area Piqué was forced to go to the ground and lock him when It had been overcome. Penalty De Rossi. Goal. 2-0 at 58 minutes and hell at a step. What was not seen from Turin on April 11, 2017, was repeated after a year in Rome, where Barca was once again a broken toy unable to propose his football personality and more time to waste than anything else .
Fortune seemed to be Rome's lack of background. Entering Ünder first and El Shaarawy later to give the last push to the Italian team and was revolutionized in search of that goal necessary to overcome the tie. Until Manolas got it, at the exit of a corner, to provoke the Roman ecstasy. Destroyed in the game and the spirit, Barça reacted without head or plan. Piqué went up, Dembélé and Alcácer went in to get the 3-1 to give him the pass, but what he gave away for 81 minutes he could not get back in that desperate final straight. Neither with Messi reached. Goodbye. By the back door.