Barcelona’s slim hopes of winning La Liga were extinguished on Monday after losing to Cádiz 1-0 at home in a match marked by protesting fans.
The fans were upset at Barcelona allowing Eintracht Frankfurt supporters to take over the Camp Nou in a Europa League loss last week.
The first ever home loss to relegation-threatened Cádiz left Barcelona 15 points behind league leaders Real Madrid with six rounds left. The Catalan club, sitting in second place, have a game in hand but time is running out on its quest to win the league for the first time in three seasons.
Lucas Perez's close-range finish early in the second half condemned Barca to a second consecutive defeat. Barca have not lost consecutive games at home since 2003.
“It was a bad week for us but we have to move on and try to change this dynamic as soon as we can,” Barcelona coach Xavi said. “We continue with our objective of securing a Champions League place.”
Upset with the high number of Frankfurt fans at the Camp Nou on Thursday, one of Barcelona’s main fan groups left empty a section of the stadium behind one of the goals on Monday.
Only about 5,000 tickets were sold to the visiting fans for Thursday’s match but nearly 30,000 made it to the Camp Nou to see their team defeat the Catalan club and advance to the Europa League semi-finals.
Barcelona officials had already said the club would investigate how so many Frankfurt fans were able to buy tickets in sections reserved for Barcelona supporters.
“It’s a shame that they didn’t come,” Xavi said. “We need them more than ever. We want to qualify for the Champions League and we need all the support we can get.”
To see how Barcelona players rated in the defeat to Cádiz, scroll through the photo gallery above.
