After Antony's goal knocked his team out of the Europa League at Old Trafford in the 73rd minute, Xavi thought Barcelona "deserved more" from their loss to Manchester United on Thursday.

After a thrilling 2-2 draw in the first leg at Camp Nou, Robert Lewandowski scored from the spot after Bruno Fernandes brought down Alejandro Balde to give Barcelona the lead in the second leg.

However, Fred equalised soon after the break, and Antony scored with less than 20 minutes remaining to send United through 4-3 on the overall score and eliminate Xavi's team.

Barca lost to the Red Devils for the first time since 2008 and in 38 matches overall in the competition.

Xavi believes his players' efforts at Old Trafford warranted more than they received, telling Movistar+ after the match: "In such evenly matched knockout matches, details are important. I think we deserved something more.

"The goal of making it 1-1 hurt us. We lost a ball, and they equalised. They played with more intensity, and we lost more duels in the second half.

"It has been an even tie. There have even been moments in which we have been very comfortable.

"This is a big disappointment, but we have to focus on the competitions we have left. We had a great rival in front of us."

1 - #Barcelona 🔵🔴 have just won one of their last 15 games in Europe against teams from the top 5 European leagues (D5 L9), as many defeats as in their 50 previous such games (W31 D10 L9). Fall. pic.twitter.com/6BCmCIBpYM— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 23, 2023

Despite Barca having now been knocked out of both the Europa League and Champions League this season, Xavi says this season's continental efforts have been an improvement on last campaign, when they were again knocked out of Europe's premier competition before succumbing to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League final eight.

"We have been better than last year," Xavi explained. "The message is a bit like when they eliminated us in the Champions League. This year we have competed against Bayern [Munich], against Inter.

"We have been better. We have competed in this tie.

"You have to be very self-critical and think about what needs to be improved. We may not be satisfied, but there has been an exponential change compared to last year.

"Next year we have to improve. They are big teams and it is hard to compete. Next year we will come back stronger."

Asked whether new signings are needed for Barca to compete at the top level again, Xavi replied: "Soon we'll see if we can sign [players]. What is clear is that we haven't competed for two years."