~Snip
don`t be too hard on Xavi, he went the extra mile. He was playing in a group full of big teams and couldn`t do better than he did. Xavi got many things wrong, I agree with you. It must be understood that it was also the first year.
Barcelona was in the group of hell last season where Bayern Munich, Inter Milan are the two teams that really have good preparedness from their squad. Barcelona, which appeared with many young players, was still not good enough to face pressure, they even appeared with an incomplete squad due to several injuries. This season should be different as Barcelona seem ready to take on the Champions League challenge despite their failures last season.
You are saying this retrospectively, but who and what was Inter Milan when nobody predicted that they would end up playing a Champions League final? The group was quite obvious and then Inter Milan shocked everyone when they went further and further in the competition.
This year it will be harder because people adjusted their expectations, but I still think that they are one of the contenders because they know how to play these competitions.