The Spanish and Catalan press were in unforgiving mood after Barcelona’s 4-0 surrender to Liverpool in the Champions League semi-finals denied them a place in the final by wiping out a 3-0 advantage from the first leg.
“The biggest embarrassment of all time,” said the front cover of Barcelona-based newspaper Sport on top of a black canvas after the 4-3 aggregate defeat, adding “Barca write the darkest page in their history”.
“A historic failure”, said Marca, listing all the factors in Barca’s favour before the game which deepened the scale of their defeat and denied Lionel Messi the chance to lift the trophy he had clearly targetted at the start of the season.
“They were 3-0 up, Liverpool’s stars were injured, the league was won, the final is in Madrid, Real Madrid were already out and they had the best player in the world.”
