Xavi: Barcelona didn’t achieve any of their key objectives against Eintracht Frankfurt

Eintracht Frankfurt came to Barcelona to try and make their mark on history on Thursday night and that is exactly what Oliver Glasner’s side did.

Although the aggregate score (4-3) finished with just one gaol in it, the visiting German side were clearly the better of the two teams at Camp Nou. Going into the half-time break 2-0 to the good, Filip Kostic added a third in the 67th minute and it wasn’t until the dying minutes when Barcelona got on the scoresheet.

In spite of Barcelona’s troubles defending, Eintracht were effective in stifling the Catalans when they had the ball too, something reflected in Xavi Hernandez’s post-match comments.

“We tried, but the problem was a footballing one. We had possession, but didn’t know how to take advantage of it, [it was] our mistake. It was a fateful night.”

Happy to analyse the footballing aspect of the match, Xavi admitted to Mundo Deportivo that they failed to carry out their game plan.

“We made a lot of mistakes, the second goal was a lost ball from ourselves, the penalty is a mistake too, the third goal ew are pressing at the touchline, they turn and move to the other side. It’s something we spoke about and it cannot happen.”

“We have to be self-critical, we weren’t good and that’s why we are out.”

In particular, the areas the technical staff had highlighted for improvement were once again their downfall in the second leg in Xavi’s eyes.

“There were three concepts [we needed to fix] in order to avoid a repeat of the first leg, intensity, minimising losses of the ball and knowing how to stop their counters, and we didn’t achieve that.”

Above all though, Xavi asked his players to believe in their ideas in order to keep progressing.