Barça ends Champions League campaign with 4-2 win over Plzen

PLZEN, Czech Republic: It was a meaningless win to close out a disappointing Champions League campaign for Barcelona. Barcelona finished the group stage with a 4-2 win at Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday, a result that did little to cushion the blow of the Catalan club’s second consecutive early exit in the European competition. “The overall evaluation of our group campaign has to be negative,” Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández said.

“We had qualification in our own hands and didn’t manage it. We didn’t take our opportunities.” Barcelona had already been eliminated in advance, while Plzen knew it had finished last in Group C. Barcelona ended the group stage with seven points in third place, guaranteed of a spot in the Europa League playoffs.

“Now we are candidates for the Europa League,” said Xavi, who didn’t use all of his regular starters on Tuesday. “It’s a beautiful competition and we will fight to win it.” Last season, Barcelona was eliminated from the second-tier competition by eventual champion Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarterfinals. Ferran Torres scored twice and Marcos Alonso and teenager Pablo Torre grabbed a goal each for the Catalan club on Tuesday.

The hosts got on the board with a pair of goals by Tomás Chorý. Barcelona’s only other group-stage victory had been 5-1 against Plzen in their opener. It then lost 2-0 at Bayern Munich and 1-0 at Inter Milan, which both advanced to the next round.

Bayern beat Inter 2-0 at home on Tuesday for its six straight victory in the group. A 3-3 draw at home against Inter then meant Barcelona needed the Italian team to stumble in its final matches, which didn’t happen. Barcelona also lost 3-0 at home to Bayern.