Spanish papers slam Barcelona and Atletico Madrid after Champions League exits

The Spanish papers have slammed Barcelona and Atletico Madrid after the two LaLiga sides were eliminated from the Champions League on Wednesday.

Barcelona learned their fate before they even took to the pitch after watching Inter Milan thrash Viktoria Plzen 4-0 in the early kick-off in their group, and they then went on to lose 3-0 at home to Bayern Munich.

Meanwhile, Atletico still had faint hopes of qualifying from Group B, but were held to a 2-2 draw by Bayer Leverkusen, with Yannick Carrasco missing an injury-time penalty that would have kept them in the hunt for a top-two finish.

AS described Barcelona and Atletico Madrid’s elimination as the ‘Night of Terror’

Marca admitted it was a ‘cruel’ way for Atletico to go out after they missed a late penalty

Diego Simeone’s men thought they’d sneak the win but failed to convert from the spot

With Sevilla already eliminated from their group, it means that only Spanish team – defending champions Real Madrid – have made the knockout stages of the competition, and the Spanish media have torn into Barcelona and Atletico for their dismal European campaigns.

Spanish outlet AS went with ‘Night of terror’ on their front page, as they described a major low for the two LaLiga giants alongside a picture of Carrasco looking distraught after his spot-kick was saved.

Marca also focused largely on Atletico’s despair by referring to how their exit was a ‘cruel’ one given they had a huge chance to win with virtually the final kick of the game.

Sport chose to go with the headline ‘consummate failure’ on their front page

Sport did not hesitate to criticise Barcelona and Atletico either, leading with ‘consummate failure’, and plumping for a photo of Barcelona players looking deflated.

Barcelona have now failed to make it past the group stage in both of the last two seasons, and they were comfortably swept aside by Bayern at the Nou Camp.

Sadio Mane and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting put the visitors in control before the interval, and Benjamin Pavard rounded off the scoring late on.

Xavi’s Barcelona are set to play in the Europa League for the second successive season

Xavi’s side will drop into the Europa League again, a bitterly disappointing outcome given that they budgeted to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League this term as a bare minimum.

Atletico’s clash with Leverkusen was a much closer affair, as Diego Simeone’s men came from behind twice, cancelling out goals from Moussa Diaby and Callum Hudson-Odoi with strikes of their own from Carrasco and Rodrigo De Paul.

They could not find a winner, though, and there is still a chance that they could finish bottom of the their group and miss out on Europe altogether in the second half of the season.