'Europa League': Magnus Carlsen takes dig at Barcelona after Champions League elimination

It was a disappointing night for Barcelona as the Spanish giants crashed out of the UEFA Champions League after losing to Bayern Munich on Thursday. The elimination was confirmed when Inter Milan defeated Viktoria Plzen and it got worse as they were defeated 3-0 by the German champions.

The social media was abuzz following Barcelona’s elimination from the tournament after an expensive summer transfer window where they added a number of big-money signings to their ranks. Reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen also took a dig at the club on Twitter.

“Good thing the Inter game is not close, so I can focus on chess and Barcelona on the Europa League,” Carlsen tweeted following Inter Milan’s victory in their group stage encounter.

Thanks to the defeat, Barcelona are expected to finish third in the group stage and they will be demoted to the Europa League as a result. Manager Xavi Hernandez expressed his disappointment after the defeat and said that the team was “not at their level” against Bayern Munich.

“In Munich it was us, but today they have been better, more intense. The elimination affected us psychologically. Tomorrow, we train and think about LaLiga. There were high expectations, we had a difficult group. Everything possible happened to us. It has been very cruel. We didn’t compete well today,” he told Marca in the post-match interview.