Xavi spoke about his team’s poor performance, El Classico, the match against Inter Milan, dependency on certain players, dip in form, and the win against Celta Vigo in his post-match press conference.
Xavi on Barca’s performance against Celta:
“This is a bittersweet victory. We won, but we need to improve a lot. The first half was good. We had to score a second goal and kill off the match there. It’s also important to win when you’re not playing well. A scoreline of 2-0 would have changed everything. Winning is not easy.
“Celta takes the ball away from you at any time. They are a very tough team. Considering that, we are happy with the result, but not with the way we played. “I do not make judgments based on the result. I am not satisfied.”
“These are golden points. We had to suffer in the end. And the fatigue of playing matches every 3 days is visible.”
Xavi on El Clasico:
“El Clasico is extremely important. But look, last year we weren’t playing that well and we won comfortably. We hope that we can show the same personality again. We have to learn from our mistakes here before the Inter and Madrid matches.”
Xavi on Barca’s poor form:
“There are moments in the season when the team is flying like we were three weeks ago. It’s not like that now but we have to pull through. We’re league leaders, and we have to get back to the level we had before the international break. But it’s not easy, as we saw today.”
“The international break may be a reason for our decline, sure. But we can’t pin it all onto that. We have big matches, we’re traveling a lot, and we have many injuries.”
Xavi on the subpar performance in the 2nd half:
“We lowered the intensity, and we cannot do that. Celta took advantage of that and controlled us. Intensity should be the most fundamental and indisputable thing to us. We need to get Lewandowski more involved in the game.”
Xavi on players’ dependency:
“Two weeks ago, you said there was Lewandowski dependency. Now it’s Ter Stegen-dependency, and in a few days it will be Pedri-dependency.”
Xavi on an ugly win against Celta:
“Until we reach excellence, we will have to grind results like these.”
Xavi on Raphinha’s reactions to a denied penalty appeal:
“We had to calm Raphinha down in the dressing room. He was very mad with the referee, and told me it was a clear penalty.”
Xavi on Barca’s chances against Inter:
“If we play as we did in the second half, it is very difficult that we can beat Inter. If we play like the first half, we can win.”
Xavi on Lewandowski’s performance:
“Lewandowski was uncomfortable in the second half; frustrated because the team did not find solutions. I still think he played a good game.”
Xavi on his team’s poor performance in the 2nd half:
“We’re not looking for excuses. We don’t like them. What happened in the second half is inadmissible. There are no excuses.”
That concluded Xavi’s press conference.
