Xavi confirms his Barcelona squad WILL watch Inter Milan’s crucial clash with Viktoria Plzen together before facing Bayern Munich tonight… with Spanish giants set for an early Champions League exit if the Serie A side win
- Inter will knock Barcelona out of the Champions League if they beat Plzen
- Inter’s match is set to finish before Barcelona’s own game even starts
- Xavi has confirmed Barcelona will watch Inter’s game together as a team
- This means they’ll know if they’ve been eliminated before playing Bayern Munich
Barcelona manager Xavi has revealed his team will watch Inter Milan’s Champions League match against Viktoria Plzen together before they face Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Inter’s home clash with Plzen gets underway at 5:45pm (UK time), with the Serie A giants requiring a win to guarantee their place in the last 16 and knock Barcelona out of the competition.
With Barcelona’s own match not starting until 8pm (UK time), the other game in Group C will be over before they take to the pitch. Some may presume that Barcelona would want to avoid finding out about the result so they can focus on their own match, but Xavi has confirmed this will not be the case.
Xavi has confirmed Barcelona will watch Inter’s match with Viktoria Plzen as a team
‘We’ll all watch the game together in the locker room,’ he said at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
‘The goal tomorrow is to play a good game and have good feelings, regardless of what happens in Milan. We have to show that we can compete with this type of teams.’
Barcelona’s Champions League fate has been taken out of their hands after a stuttering campaign that has seen them win just one of their four group games to date.
After thrashing Plzen 5-1 on the opening matchday, they then suffered back-to-back away defeats against Bayern and Inter.
Inter beat Plzen earlier in the group, and a repeat of that result would knock Barcelona out
Barcelona have won just one game in the group, and could drop into the Europa League again
They needed to beat Inter in the at the Nou Camp last time out to move into the top two in the group, but could only manage a 3-3 draw.
Xavi’s men were on the brink of elimination during that game, but Robert Lewandowski’s injury-time equaliser kept their slim hopes of qualification alive.
Barcelona will now be hoping for Plzen to do them a favour on Wednesday or they will drop into the Europa League for a second straight season.
Wednesday’s matches could have a significant impact on the Catalan giants off the pitch as well.
Sportsmail understands the club have budgeted for the team to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League as a bare minimum.
Therefore, it would be a financial disaster for Barcelona if they fail to make it out of the group stages, and could affect how much they are able to spend in future transfer windows.
