The Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, stated this Sunday after the draw against Espanyol at the RCDE Stadium (2-2) that “it would have been unfair to lose” and lamented the “mistakes” of his team in some sections of the match, keys in his opinion for not signing a victory.
In any case, Xavi was self-critical and stressed that his team must improve for the next matches: “Mistakes are taking points away from us . If we keep a clean sheet we would be talking about a victory. And if it was 0-2, it would have changed the game too.”
Asked about changing him to three defenders in the final half, the coach acknowledged that it was a “risky” bet. “On the counter they can catch you, but we got a point at the end. We continue to have faith, wanting. We haven’t been at Atlético’s level, but we’ve played enough to win it“, he reflected.
The Barça coach recalled that the team is still “in the Champions zone” of the First Division classification and opted to “continue working with great humility”. However, the Catalan insisted that “it would have been unfair to lose” since the block had “very good phases” against Espanyol.
On the gestures of the central defender Araujo in the final stages of the duel, From the bench, Xavi explained that he had not seen it, but asked the stands for “sorry” in case something had bothered them and stressed that they should always show “respect” for the rival and for their fans.
The Barcelona coach also valued the role of Dembélé, whose future at the club was uncertain in recent weeks: “He has helped us, he is one more for the cause,” he closed.
Barcelona equaled 2-2 this Sunday against Espanyol, in a match that was defined with a goal at minute 96 by Dutchman Luuk De Jong.