Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde admits his future may be in question and that “horrible days” lie ahead after their 4-0 Champions League collapse to Liverpool.
A year on from the Spanish champions quarter-final capitulation against Roma, Barca threw away their 3-0 first leg semi-final advantage at Anfield.
Divock Origi and Gini Wijnaldum both scored twice, to seal a historic comeback victory for the Reds.
Valverde, 55, was widely criticised for his part in the failure of Rome 13 months ago - a failure some fans are still to forgive, or forget, despite back-to-back La Liga titles.
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“I don't know how this affects my future,” Valverde said on Tuesday night.
“We haven't had time to think about those things. But here we are and the coach has to take responsibility.
“With a collapse of this nature, we will have a few horrible days ahead.
"Then we have to come out of it with time. Ahead of us we have league games to play, the Copa [del Rey] final to play. Right now we are devastated.”
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On Liverpool’s performance, Valverde added: "They were better and we have to accept it. The scoreline was 4-0 and when that's the case there are no excuses.
"Their second goal hurt us massively and the third one came in straight after that.
"They played well, and we have to congratulate them for reaching the final.”
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The ex-Athletic Bilbao coach had reminded his players in the build up on Merseyside of what happened at the Stadio Olimpico in 2018.
But when Liverpool rose to the challenge in the second half, Barca failed to stem the tide and after Wijnaldum’s double had levelled the tie on aggregate, the Catalans created little.
"The most painful thing is that this has happened before,” he continued. "It's very painful for us, especially for our fans.
"It's the second year in a row they've experienced this. We wanted to really concentrate to avoid this.
"We are really sorry. Everything we do, everything we play for, everything footballers do for their living is to bring joy to the fans so they can be proud of the players.
"This is football, these things can happen."
