MADRID—Very rarely does one single result bring the curtain down on an era, but that is what FC Barcelona’s 8-2 thrashing in the quarter-final of the  hampions League did on Friday night.

Barca’s worst ever European defeat was a “historically ridiculous” according to the pro-Barca ‘El Mundo  eportivo’ newspaper and had veteran defender Gerard Pique tell TV cameras directly after the final whistle that it was “embarrassing.”

“We have touched bottom and it’s unacceptable,” added Pique after Barca had been outplayed, outrun and outfought in every area of the park by a Bayern side that looked, fitter, faster and hungrier than the Catalans.

The immediate consequence of the defeat will be to bring the curtain down on the brief spell at the Camp Nou of coach Quique Setien, who was brought in to replace Ernesto Valverde with Barca top of the league in January, only to see his side finish five points behind Real Madrid and now to crash disastrously out of Europe.

 “We are going to take decisions,” said Barca president, Josep Maria Bartomeu shortly after the final whistle, probably aware that his own future is now up in the air as well with elections for the presidency on the horizon.

Xinhua