Xavi unrest at Barcelona could damage Champions League hopes, says Raphael Honigstein - 'A dysfunctional side'

Xavi’s bitter end to his tenure as Barcelona head coach could have a detrimental effect on the team's UEFA Champions League hopes, according to Raphael Honigstein.

The TNT Sports Goals Show pundit and German football journalist highlighted how far the Spanish champions have fallen from grace in recent months, after opening the campaign with a 5-0 mauling of Royal Antwerp.

Xavi announced his intention to resign as Barcelona head coach at the end of the season in a statement released last month.

“When they had everyone playing at the beginning of the season, even in the first game of the Champions League which was admittedly against relatively easy opposition in Antwerp, they looked how Xavi would have dreamt Barcelona to play,” he told TNT Sports.

“This was the real Barcelona coming back, with movement, positional play, along with final-third inventiveness and creativity.

“Everything was there; Joao Felix looked so strong, [Robert] Lewandowski scored the goals, and [Ilkay] Gundogan looked like a key player already in his first season.

“But it's all gone completely in the other direction, and they're now a dysfunctional side. The manager finds a reason in every press conference explaining why he doesn't want to be there anymore.

“Some of those reasons contradict each other, but it doesn't make for a winning combination.”

Napoli are Barcelona’s opponents in the last 16, and the Italian champions have had their own struggles in a troubled campaign.

Barcelona travel to the first leg at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on February 21, ahead of the second leg at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on March 12.

The Azzurri have all but surrendered the Scudetto title, sitting an enormous 22 points adrift of league leaders Inter.

They sacked Rudi Garcia as head coach in November and replaced him with former boss Walter Mazzarri on a deal until the end of the season.

Despite their respective woes, Honigstein says there will be plenty of entertainment on offer in this last 16 tie.

“These two sides have big issues,” he explained.

“For the neutrals, it's going to be amazing because we'll see goals. I think it's going to be one of the most entertaining ties of this round.”

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