Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez confirmed that the Catalan club is the most difficult team in the world to train because its critics are always ready to attack it even after achieving great victories.
Barcelona defeated arch-rivals Real Madrid 1-0 in the first leg of the King’s Cup semi-finals, Thursday, at the latter’s stadium, “Santiago Bernabeu”, but he was criticized for the fact that his team had only 34 percent possession of the ball.
Xavi said the demands on his team to play beautiful football as well as win matches and lift trophies meant his job was more difficult than any other job in the world of football.
The former Catalan midfield maestro spoke at the press conference he held before his team’s match against Valencia on Sunday in the League: “You beat Real Madrid 1-0 and the victory seems not convincing enough, while if otherwise had happened, Real would have held a national party. So it’s the toughest club in the world, now believe me, I said that last year and got criticized for it.
And he added, “In Barcelona, you have to win and convince, possess 70 percent, and create 16 chances while the opponent creates three. This is the goal, and this is our goal, but you have to understand that the opponent is the holder of the Spanish League title and the European champion, and we are competing with him.”
Xavi considered it absurd to criticize Barcelona for not keeping the ball when he faced the Madrid club, which adopted a high-pressure method on the field.
He said, “We did not want to play in our own penalty area, but Real pushed us there. This was not our goal in the match.”
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