Xavi on his side 4-0 defeat to Rivals: “It’s a shame, but we played against the Champions League winners”

By Xorkpe Sosu 4 Min Read

Real Madrid humiliated Barcelona 4-0 at Spotify Camp Nou in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, giving them a reality check after a fantastic run in which they won three straight El Clasico games.With a one-goal advantage going into the game, Barça got off to a good start and had a few opportunities, but they were unable to take advantage of them.

Barcelona fans expressed their desire to see Lionel Messi return to the club in 2023 by chanting his name in the 10th minute of play. However, Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr scored a goal just before half-time.

Karim Benzema added to Barcelona’s woes by scoring another goal, thereby giving Real Madrid a 2-0 lead.

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Barcelona was unable to recover from this setback and eventually collapsed under the pressure exerted by Real Madrid.In the 58th minute, Real Madrid was given a penalty, which Benzema confidently converted into a goal, bringing him closer to a hat-trick.

However, Benzema’s milestone goal eventually came in the latter stages of the game, increasing Real Madrid’s aggregate lead to 4-1.

After the game, manager Xavi Hernandez addressed the media and bemoaned the fact that Barcelona did not use their chances, saying: “I think that in the first half, we could have finished with a good result. 

“We didn’t take advantage of our chances.”

“When you do that against Madrid, it will penalize you. Real Madrid are the favorites in whichever competition they are playing.”

“This is a heavy defeat that hurts us a lot. Now we have to be united,” he admitted. “I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight. I’m very hurt.”

“The second half punished us a lot. We competed better than the results suggests.” “We made very serious errors that showed we did not compete.” 

“It’s a shame. We have to be self-critical. The second half was very bad.”

Xavi on key injuries: “If I talk about injuries, it would seem like an excuse. We have to react quickly and win La Liga.”

“I said that Madrid were favorites,” he added. 

“We have to congratulate Madrid. They compete very well in Cup competitions.”

“It’s a shame, but we played against the Champions League winners. I already told you how difficult it was to beat this team.”

“This is Madrid. In the first half, they didn’t dominate the match, and we created much more but they scored the first goal. We know it. It’s how they won the Champions League last year.”

Xavi on his teams mentality: “I don’t think we had a mental issue today. We are not mature enough. We have so many young players and they have to learn how to compete better.” 

“We are not going to kill anyone after this. Lewandowski is the top scorer in the league. He’s calm.”

“Our moment was in the first half. If we took advantage of the first half the match would have been different. We were run over in the second half.”

“I don’t think that the players stopped trying, but we got disorganized.”

Xavi on his team focus to win La Liga: “We have 11 finals left in the league, We have to focus on La Liga now, which is a more important competition than the Copa del Rey.”

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