The bishop exchange has emphasized Black's light square weaknesses, and his next move makes things even worse.
Avoiding 8...Nxe4?! 9.Nxe4, when White gets closer to achieving c4-c5. In the game Black keeps the important c5-square under control, whereas the bishop isn't really doing anything on e4.
Preparing Bf5 in order to swap White's good bishop. Besides this, there now appears the threat of ...Bxh3.
Exploiting the protected square. White's next move makes things worse, but his game was difficult anyway.