World chess champion Magnus Carlsen takes savage dig at Barcelona: 'Europa League'

Barcelona faced a 3-0 defeat at Camp Nou, at the hands of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich on matchday 5 of UEFA Champions League 2022-23. They got eliminated from the current UCL season even before the match finished, which has now happened for the second-straight season. Meanwhile, Barcelona’s relegation to the UEFA Europa League for the next season became the biggest talking point for the sports world and also received a reaction from the reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. 

Magnus Carlsen takes a dig at Barcelona

Carlsen took to his official Twitter handle on Wednesday and said Barcelona can now focus on the Europa League, while also mentioning the matchday 6 matchup between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. “Good thing the Inter game is not close, so I can focus on chess and Barcelona on the Europa League,” Carlsen tweeted. The chess world champion’s tweet has since gone viral among football fans on social media and has received almost 25 thousand likes and 2000+ retweets so far.

Barcelona's disappointing UEFA Champions League 2022-23 campaign

Barcelona kicked off their UEFA Champions League 2022-23 campaign against Viktoria Plzen on September 8 with a 5-1 win at their home. Robert Lewandowski led the Barca attack with a hattrick of goals, in what looked like to be a great start to the season. However, they failed to capitalize on the momentum as Bayern Munich defeated them by 2-0 at the Allianz Arena.

On matchday 3, Xavi’s side suffered a 0-1 loss against Inter Milan as their campaign further suffered a downslide. The final nail in the coffin for Barcelona was a 3-3 draw against Inter Milan on October 13, which almost ended their hopes for qualification to the UEFA Champions League knockout stage. The 3-0 loss to Bayern confirmed their relegation to the Europa League next season.

'It has been very cruel': Xavi Hernandez on Barcelona's UCL 2022-23 campaign

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernadez spoke to Marca after losing to Bayern and revealed his disappointment. The club legend credited Bayern for being better while admitting that the Spanish giants were not at their level. “In Munich it was us, but today they have been better, more intense. The elimination affected us psychologically. Tomorrow, we train and think about LaLiga. There were high expectations, we had a difficult group. Everything possible happened to us. It has been very cruel. We didn’t compete well today,” he added.