EUROPA LEAGUE
Have Barcelona ever played in and won the Europa League?
For the first time since the 2000/01 season, Barcelona have failed to advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League and head to the Europa League.
FC Barcelona will be the major absentee from the Champions League Round of 16 as the group stage came to a close (with tonight's postponed Atalanta-Villarreal to be played on Thursday) with the Catalan side crashing out of the competition after a 3-0 defeat away to Bayern Munich as Benfica secured a 2-0 win at home to Dynamo Kyiv to secure second place in Group E and condemn Xavi Hernandez's side to the Europa League.
The last time Barcelona failed to advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League was in the 2000/01 season. The Catalan side finished third in their group behind AC Milan and Leeds United. It was a low point for the club and one which current boss Xavi will remember. The former midfielder was part of Llorenç Serra Ferrer's squad that season and featured in the last three group stage games. The last time that the Primera club were unable to qualify for the Champions League group stage was in 2003 as they finished in sixth-placed in LaLiga.
Barcelona in the Europa League
The Catalan side have never participated in UEFA's rebranded competition since the former UEFA Cup was given the new moniker in 2009 and Monday's draw will be the first time the Camp Nou side feature in the draw for the second tier competition.
Despite five Champions League wins to their name, Barça failed to win a UEFA Cup in their 11 seasons participating in the competition, however the Catalan side did progress to the semi-final stage of the competition on four occasions but fell to Liverpool in 1975/76, PSV Eindhoven two seasons later and lost to Bayern in the 1995/96 season. Once again Liverpool were their undoing in the 2000/01 campaign.
The UEFA Cup was also where Scottish club Dundee United continued their 100% winning record against Barcelona - the only European club to have won all their games against the Catalan giants. Dundee United first played Barcelona in the now defunct Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in the 1966-1967 season, winning in Spain 2-1, before going on to triumph 2-0 back in Scotland. Dundee United then met Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the 1987 UEFA Cup, where they won 1-0 at their home ground Tannadice, before beating Barça 2-1 at the Camp Nou.
The Catalan side did fare better in the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners Cup competition winning that European honour on four occasions with the last win coming in the 1996/97 final against PSG with a Ronaldo penalty enough to secure the title. UEFA did away with the CWC competition in 1999 as new the Catalan side are set to embark on a new journey in the 2021/22 Europa League.