No it doesnt. The squad were more than good enough to beat those teams and collapsed.
A massive opportunity missed both times and that doesnt change if Barca go on to win it this season.
Barca the last two seasons were eliminated by the first even decent team they met.
I agree that we were capable of being good enough to beat those teams but we collapsed. But football doesn’t work like that, yes despite us being good enough to beat them we couldn’t because we weren’t ready yet. Failure is the first step of success, you have to be able to gain experience in something before you master it. There is a reason why many historic dynasties had to suffer before they truly raised their level and started their dynasty. We also went out with better teams in 2010 and 2012, despite being the better team on paper clearly but we couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t mean’t to be.
The losses can’t be excused but they can be understood. That we are still growing and improving slowly but surely we will get there and finally win the UCL. Like it isn’t something to be fully ashamed about, it proves we weren’t ready yet. Many of the players in the PSG tie in 2024 were playing their first UCL knockout ties like Raphinha, Yamal, Cubarsi, Pedri, Kounde, Ferran and Fermin.
Unlike the 2016-19 eliminations, when we had an established core of UCL winners like Messi, Suarez, Alba, Busquets, Pique, Rakitic and ter Stegen. We completely got battered and humiliated despite us having the better squad or the 3 goal led in the 17-18 and 18-19 eliminations. Those losses weren’t forgivable cause we had proven winners in that squad who won the treble for us, you can’t forgive those losses cause they were in the most toothless and shameless way possible despite the proven winners in our teams to clearly inferior teams.
Once the team actually becomes established in the UCL, then we can see that it is truly a humiliation to go out despite having that squad who had extreme experience in the UCL. But to call collapse by a relatively inexperienced team a humiliation is very unfair to be honest.