MADRID, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Surely there can be no way back for FC Barcelona following Tuesday's 3-0 defeat away to Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-finals tie.
Although the last round saw Barcelona produce a record breaking comeback against Paris Saint Germain, overturning a 4-0 first leg defeat to win the return game 6-1 in the Camp Nou Stadium, Paris lack Juventus' huge experience at this stage of the competition, as well as the defensive meanness which characterizes the Italian side.
The defeat comes hot on the heels of Barcelona's 2-0 defeat away to Malaga on Saturday night which put a huge dent in their domestic league title hopes and with a trip to face Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to come on April 23rd just four days after the return leg against Juventus, their season (with the exception of the King's Cup final) is on the verge of falling apart.
Barcelona were actually better in Turin than in Paris with Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez both going agonizingly close to the away goal which would have put a different complexion on the tie.
However, Gianluigi Buffon got a hand on Iniesta's angled shot and seconds later Paolo Dybala scored his second of the night to see the score go from a possible 1-1 to 2-0 in Juventus' favor and tilt the balance squarely in favor of the Italians.
Barca coach Luis Enrique didn't hold back in his criticism of his players after the final whistle, saying he had "relived a nightmare," and that the result was "serious, very serious."
"Today it is hard for me to think we can get back into this," he said in his post-match press conference.
The Catalan sports paper 'El Mundo Deportivo' used the coach's words as its front page, headlining with the phrase "Very sad, very serious," which not only reflects the result in Turin, but also the current state of a team which knows the coach will be leaving at the end of the season.
Diario Sport, another pro-Barcelona newspaper simply describes the result as "A nightmare," with its front page getting into the spirit of the Easter holidays, with a photo of Luis Enrique standing with his arms outstretched in despair and the headline "Crucified."
Regional daily newspaper, La Vanguardia harks back to the defeat in Paris saying "The nightmare from Paris moves to Turin," while El Periodico de Cataluna says Barca are "On the edge of the abyss (again)" , while talking about a "disaster, car crash, a dreadful game and a shipwreck."
And this time nobody, not even Luis Enrique, believes that Barca can haul themselves from the wreckage.
