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Barcelona were faced with yet another tough battle after their defeat against Real Madrid last weekend as they traveled to Reale Arena to take on Real Sociedad for gameweek 12.
The Basque outfit were the better team from minute one, taking the game to Barcelona, who clearly faced an uphill task.
In fact, an argument can be made for this to be the worst performance during Xavi’s tenure so far. Fortunately, this side evidently has a different mental side compared to teams of yesteryears.
The Catalans suffered for 85 minutes, and decided to wake up after that, creating a fair few decent chances. Eventually, a hail mary header from Ronald Araujo trickled in, in the 92nd minute, giving Barcelona all three points.
More than aware of the stark contrast between the result this week and last week, Xavi pointed it out, as relayed by MARCA, “Last week we deserved to win and we lost. This week we didn’t deserve to win… but we did. That is football.”
“We took out the anger we had on El Clasico today. We won a very important match, even though we did not deserve it.”
“We cannot play this football. We entered the match with zero intensity. If we play like this in the Champions League, we will not compete. The first half is completely unacceptable for us,” he added.
Apart from the win and the performance, one major talking point for Barcelona today was the return of Pedri in midfield. Xavi had only kind words for his first appearance since matchday two.
“Pedri’s return will change the team’s face in the next matches.”
The Spaniard came on for Robert Lewandowski, who put in a rather disappointing shift in attack today. Xavi reminded the press that the Pole has only recently returned from an injury.
“Lewandowski is coming back from an injury and it’s hard for him to stay 100% fit. We have to manage injuries and substitutions well.”
Xavi was once again asked about Ilkay Gundogan’s words after El Clasico last weekend, and the coach was…
Source link : https://barcauniversal.com/xavi-talks-pedri-lewandowski-kubo-gundogan-after-real-sociedad-0-1-barcelona/
Author : Udhav Arora
Publish date : 2023-11-04 23:02:08
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