6 humiliating defeats suffered by Barcelona in the last decade
Over the past decade, few clubs have been as successful as Barcelona. The Catalan giants have largely dominated football, winning the Champions League three times, La Liga six times, and the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi have become legends of the game. Under boss Pep Guardiola, Barca essentially rewrote football history.
However, every great team has to lose at some time. Sure, some losses are to be expected or can be justified by the strength of the opposition, but others are of the more humiliating kind, the sort of losses to lower-level teams that make a big club a laughing stock for a while, or heavy losses to rivals that often sting for years.
Even the great Barcelona have suffered losses like that, and here are five of the most humiliating in the past decade.
#1 Real Madrid 4-1 Barcelona – 7th May 2008
Real Madrid vs. Barcelona – A.K.A the El Clasico – is probably the most heated rivalry in football, and this May 2008 victory for Real was one of Barca’s worst losses in recent history.
After finishing 2006-07 without any trophies, the pressure was on boss Frank Rijkaard to deliver the goods in the subsequent season, but it was not to be. Just a week after being eliminated from the Champions League by Manchester United, Barca faced a Real side who had clinched La Liga just three days beforehand.
They could’ve dampened Real’s celebrations, but failed miserably.
Barca were forced to form a guard of honour for their bitter rivals and then capitulated on the pitch, with Raul, Arjen Robben, Gonzalo Higuain and Rudd Van Nistelrooy putting Real into a four-goal lead. And although Thierry Henry scored a consolation, Xavi was sent off in injury time to compound the Catalan misery.
The game proved to be the final curtain for Rijkaard, as it was announced that he would relinquish his duties at the end of the season and hand over to Pep Guardiola. Every cloud does indeed have a silver lining maybe.