Gerard Pique has been left with egg on his face after Barcelona's shock Europa League defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt saw the Spanish giants miss out on a semi-final date with West Ham.
Xavi's men drew 1-1 in last week's first leg over in Germany and were expected to get the job done at the Nou Camp on Thursday night given their relentless run of form in recent months. However, the competition's favourites found themselves on the end of an almighty upset.
A Filip Kostic double and a wonder strike from Rafael Borre saw Frankfurt race into three-goal lead and stun the Spanish side. Barcelona pulled two goals back late on thanks to a superb Sergio Busquets strike and a Memphis Depay spot-kick, but it wasn't enough - leaving the Spaniards to crash out 4-3 on aggregate and leave Pique red-faced over his recent declaration.
Having between written off for most of the season amid a crippling financial crisis and faltering form on the pitch, Barcelona looked to have silence their critics with an emphatic El Clasico win last month. Xavi's side smashed La Liga leaders and fierce rivals Real Madrid 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu in one of the most eye-catching results of the current campaign.
Following the Madrid mauling, Pique took to Twitter to declare: "We are back." However, his bold announcement appears to have been somewhat premature.
The Blaugrana have been in frightening form over recent months, going unbeaten in their previous 15 fixtures ahead of Thursday's Nou Camp return against Frankfurt. However, a dramatic defeat to the Bundesliga side has now put paid to his proclamation.
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The club's Europa League exit means the Spanish giants have now been knocked out of four cup competitions this season and appear to be heading for another trophy-less campaign. Barcelona failed to make the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in 17 years earlier in the season as both Bayern Munich and Benfica finished above them in their group.
The cash-strapped Catalan club also lost to Real Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana semi-final, before crashing out of the Copa del Rey to Athletic Club. Despite these defeats, the Spanish side have experience a remarkable resurgence since Xavi succeeded Ronald Koeman as manager back in November.
Barcelona were as low as ninth when the club icon took over, but a late 3-2 win over Levante at the weekend saw the Blaugrana move up to second in the La Liga standings. Despite holding a game in hand over Real Madrid, Xavi's men remain 12 points adrift of the Carlo Ancelotti's league leaders as another season without silverware looks highly likely.
Following his side's embarrassing Europa League exit, Xavi condemned the fact 30,000 Frankfurt fans managed to get into the Nou Camp stadium. He said: "Clearly the atmosphere did not help and the club is looking into why this happened.
"The players want to know why too. It was a clear miscalculation on our part. This cannot be allowed to happen. It was more like a final with the stadium divided."
The loss means it is Eintracht Frankfurt who progress to the Europa League semi-finals where they will take on West Ham, who themselves claimed a stunning triumph, beating Lyon 3-0 in France. The winner will take face either Rangers or RB Leipzig in the competition's final at Sevilla 's Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium on May 18.
