Barcelona have conceded the most goals in La Liga this season – and Liverpool are to blame for their woeful decline
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LIONEL MESSI has revealed that he can't even play football at home with his son without being reminded of that night at Anfield.
Barcelona were in a commanding three-goal lead during their Champions League semi-final against Liverpool before Divock Origi and Gini Wijnaldum bagged braces to seal a historic comeback.
The Reds went on to lift a sixth European Cup and have since started the following season unbeaten after winning six games from six.
In contrast, Barcelona have played nine competitive matches since that humbling defeat on Merseyside, winning just three.
Before that second-leg, the Blaugrana were on for the treble, but they then lost the Copa Del Rey final against Valencia 18 days later and are now in the midst of experiencing their worst ever start to a season in 25 years.
Back-to-back meltdowns in the Champions League following the defeat to Roma have led to staunch criticisms of Ernesto Valverde's tactics, with Barca moving away from their tiki-taka playing style.
The La Liga Champions now find themselves languishing in seventh following their shock 2-0 away defeat at Granada on Saturday night.
It is their worst start since 1994, with Barca only managing to score 12 goals while shipping nine against.
By contrast, they had only conceded five at this time last year, and never in the club's last ten seasons in which they won La Liga have they let in so much.
ON RED ALERT
And it means that the Catalans latest defeat means they have now failed to win seven successive matches in a row for the first time 2001.
Club president Josep Bartomeu described the Liverpool defeat as a “disastrous night” for the club, while Luis Suarez later admitted that he didn’t want to leave the house.
Barcelona's poor start to the season was largely blamed on injuries, in particular, to captain and usual-saviour Messi, yet the Argentine was unable to influence proceedings on his return at Granada.
Young summer signing Frenkie de Jong was the only player to apologise to supporters following the game in which Barca had one shot on target.
The combinations of Messi, Suarez, Ansu Fati, and Antoine Griezmann only managed that amount in the loss to Athletic Bilbao, and the draw at Borussia Dortmund.
“It is going to be a difficult year,” Suarez said following the slip at Granada, a week after Messi admitted in an interview with that the game against Liverpool still left a "great mark."
Jurgen Klopp recently revealed that he missed the corner from Trent Alexander-Arnold that led calls for Ernesto Valverde to be sacked.
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But Barcelona chose to keep faith with the former Athletic Bilbao boss who has rapidly been losing the dressing room since that night in April.
Valverde said: "In the world of football talk of crisis comes quickly. You enter into crisis every three days and you also come out of crisis in three days.
"Now we have two games this week and we want to pick up six points, starting tomorrow. That's the only way everyone is much calmer."