It's another midweek of European cup quarterfinal action across the continent, and fans may be surprised to see that Barcelona is playing on Thursdays, rather than earlier in the week.
The Catalan giants are in action against Eintracht Frankfurt in what should be an entertaining, first-leg clash as both sides bid for a semifinal berth ... in the Europa League.
It's been a while since we've seen Barcelona playing in Europe's secondary club competition, but there are plenty of reasons why Xavi Hernandez's men find themselves in this position.
The Europa League will award the tournament winner with a place in next season's Champions League. So Barcelona will be plenty incentivized to make a run for a trophy that will get them back to where the club expects to be.
Why is Barcelona playing in the Europa League?
For large stretches, especially early on, Barca were not having their best season in 2021-22.
They began their European adventure this season in the prestigious UEFA Champions League. But the group stage started with successive 3-0 defeats, at home to Bayern Munich, and then away to Benfica.
Two 1-0 wins over group cellar dweller Dynamo Kyiv were followed by a draw against Benfica, and another 3-0 loss against the German club. They only finished third in their group, with a paltry total of seven points, and that was enough to see them eliminated from Europe's premier competition.
The poor performance in the Champions League mirrored their domestic form, which saw manager Ronald Koeman sacked before the end of October. The appointment of Xavi came too late to save Barca's European campaign, with the club dropping into the knockout round playoffs of the Europa League by virtue of their third-place finish.
Barcelona knocked off Italian power Napoli in the knockout round playoffs to make the Round of 16 proper, where they dispatched Turkish giants Galatasaray 2-1 on aggregate.
Results under Xavi started out mixed, but have since turned promising as they sit second in the La Liga table. A top-four finish in Spain would be another way for Barcelona to guarantee Champions League football again next season.
Has Barcelona ever played in the Europa League?
This is the first time since the 2003-04 season that Barcelona is not playing in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
They have featured in UEFA's second tier competition 11 times before in its previous iteration as the UEFA Cup (rebranded to "Europa League" in 2009-10).
In the 2003-04 campaign, Barca were knocked out by Celtic in the UEFA Cup Round of 16 after a 1-0 loss in the away leg followed a 0-0 draw at home.
Barcelona have never made the final of the second-tier competition (UEFA Cup or Europa League). They were UEFA Cup semifinalists on four occasions, losing each semifinal by one goal.
They were beaten by Liverpool on two occasions in the semis, in 1976 and in 2001, and they lost to PSV Eindhoven in 1978, and Bayern Munich in 1996. In all four years, the team that they lost to in the semis ended up lifting the trophy.
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