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After ousting from UEFA Champions League, Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman opened up on club great Lionel Messi’s future at the Camp Nou. Koeman said that only Messi can decide his future but he can see the future of Barcelona is bright.
Barcelona played a 1-1 draw against PSG in the second leg of round of 16 and were eliminated from the UCL on a 5-2 aggregate. It is the first time after 2007 when Barcelona failed to enter the quarterfinals of UCL.
The Catalan giants played a decent game on Wednesday night but it was the clumsy performance in the first leg which cost them the chance to survive in the tournament.
Koeman talked about the young talented players in the Barcelona camp and said there are no questions regarding the capability of the current team.
“Leo’s seen for a while that the team is improving with the changes we’ve made,” the Barca coach said after exiting the Champions League.
“We have youngsters with quality and big futures coming into the team, so it’s not a question of having doubts about what this team is capable of.
“But only he can decide his future. No one can help him. He can see this side has a great future, so that’s not an argument for him to [leave].”
In the ongoing season, Koeman has given a lot of chances to young players like Pedri, Trincao, Ronald Arujao, Oscar Mingueza and Ansu Fati as all of them have not let their manager down.
The 57-year-old further talked about the draw against PSG and said that his team failed to convert the chances in the first half.
“We didn’t get the reward our first half deserved. We dominated PSG and created a lot of chances. But we didn’t take them. After going into the break at 1-1, it becomes more difficult.”
Koeman further heaped praise on PSG and their goalkeeper Keylor Navas for the extraordinary show on Wednesday night.
“The first leg result was excessive. PSG were very clinical. That’s been the big difference. We created more than them here than they did in Barcelona, but they scored more.
“But I can’t fault the team. They put in a huge effort. We also lacked a little bit of luck and their goalkeeper [Keylor Navas] was the man of the match,” Koeman said.
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