The last five times Barcelona went trophyless – & what happened next

Barcelona are a club that always aim to compete for the biggest trophies every year and mostly succeed. But their first season of the post-Messi era will be one where they failed to obtain any silverware, which is considered a crime in Catalonia.

Despite the appointment of Xavi as manager in November 2021, reviving Barcelona from the depths of the Ronald Koeman era, they were stunned in the Europa League by Frankfurt, as well as failing to close the gap on Real Madrid in La Liga and also disappointing in the Copa Del Rey.

The future does look bright, with some world-class talent breaking through into the first team, but they will have to improve significantly to obtain some silverware since winning the 2021 Copa Del Rey.

We’ve listed the last five occasions where Barcelona failed to win any major silverware, and whether they were able to bounce back from their failures.

A disastrous campaign which saw manager Ernesto Valverde sacked and replaced by Quique Setien, Barcelona were disappointing in every competition.

The Blaugrana finished five points off their rivals Real Madrid in La Liga and were knocked out of the Copa Del Rey quarter-finals by Athletic Bilbao, but the biggest humiliation came in the Champions League.

In the one-legged quarter-final against Bayern Munich, Barcelona could not cope with the intensity of the German champions, losing 8-2 in what was one of the darkest days in the history of the club.

An attempted rebuild under Koeman followed with limited success, although they did end up winning the 2021 Copa Del Rey, beating Athletic Bilbao in the final, which would end up being Lionel Messi’s final trophy with the club.

Unlike 2019-20, Barcelona can consider themselves unlucky about the events of 2014.

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