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Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann and goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen both spoke out after Tuesday’s 3-0 Champions League defeat to Juventus at the Camp Nou.
The Catalan giants were soundly beaten and now progress to Friday’s Round of 16 draw as runners-up after losing top spot to Juventus in their final Group G match.
Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and a superb strike by Weston McKennie did the damage for the visitors, and Griezmann told reporters after the match his team had not been good enough, as reported by UEFA.
This was a bad day, a bad match. Lacking in the hunger we needed. It’s the fault of us players. We need to work more, work better. This wasn’t a good image we gave of ourselves. We’ve got the level, we just need to improve and win at the weekend or things will get worse.
Barcelona’s defeat comes hot on the heels of a shock 2-1 loss at Cadiz on Saturday in La Liga. Next up for the Catalan giants is a visit from Levante on Sunday.
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Ter Stegen Highlights Defensive Deficiencies
Ter Stegen also offered his thoughts after the defeat following another unimpressive defensive display by the hosts. Barca gave away two penalties during the match, both tucked away by Ronaldo, and can consider themselves unlucky not to have lost by a bigger margin.
Leonardo Bonucci saw a strike chalked off for offside in the second half, while Barca rarely threatened at the other end. Ter Stegen gave an honest view of his team’s failings.
I think that the first half an hour we weren’t intense enough, we lacked concentration and made some mistakes but especially in the second half we improved man for man and played with determination and intention
Nobody should think that we aren’t preparing well for the games. We are working hard, training well, but we need to improve. All of us are aware of that.
There are two things – one thing is individual mistakes, and the other is how the team defends. These are different things. At the moment teams can score against us in any moment. This is very tough, we need to come out of this, work very hard.
Our objective is always to finish first but we remain a team which has played well in the Champions League group. There are no easy teams left in this competition, perhaps there might have been in days gone by but no more. So we’ll try to prove ourselves against whoever we play next.
The defeat means Barcelona will face one of the other group winners in the next round of the Champions League. The draw will be held on Monday and the competition will resume in February 2021.
Bonucci Hails ‘Historic Result’
Barca’s defeat is all the more painful as they had won all five group games beforehand and would have won the group even with a narrow defeat. The Catalan giants also beat Juve comfortably in Turin back in October.
However, Andrea Pirlo’s side were comfortably the better side at the Camp Nou, becoming the first team to win at Barcelona in the Champions League since Bayern Munich back in 2013.
Bonucci hailed his team’s historic win after the match and also praised goalscorer Ronaldo on his first appearance at the Camp Nou as a Juventus player, as reported by UEFA.
Scoring three and not conceding here in Barcelona is just fantastic, a historic result. We knew we had to play with heart today and we did just that. It was important in order to win the group but also to grow in confidence.
It was a great team effort. When you take the pitch with this will to sacrifice for each other, for the good of the team, and you have a finisher like Cristiano up front, everything becomes possible.
The Turin giants should receive a more favorable draw in the last 16 and won’t lack for confidence after their impressive result at the Camp Nou. Juve could still come up against teams such as Atletico Madrid, Porto, and Sevilla, with the final round of fixtures set to be played on Wednesday.
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