Barcelona find themselves hanging on to their Champions League status by a thread following a 3-3 draw with Inter at Camp Nou.
Speaking to the press after the match, manager Xavi Hernandez was frustrated with the number of mistakes made by his team in the second half. They conceded three goals and it arguably could have been more, if not for some excellent Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
His captain Sergio Busquets admitted that Barcelona had fallen short of expectations to Movistar+ after the match, his words were carried by Sport.
“It’s a disappointment. It was a difficult group but we had to aspire to more after all of the signings that have been made. It is not mathematical(ly done) but it is very difficult.”
Once again he felt that Barcelona did not react well to going behind, chasing the game perhaps prematurely.
“We were not as effective in the areas and you pay for that in the Champions League. It was a heads or tails and it has gone badly for us in the second half.”
“Their first goal gave them a boost and took something out of us and we went trailing behind. It feels like when they score a goal it is chaos.”
It gets even harder for the Blaugrana this weekend, as they travel to Real Madrid. Busquets was not feeling optimistic.
“It’s clear that this could affect us ahead of El Clasico. We have to lift ourselves.”
Barcelona have now won just one of their four Champions League ties this season, a stark contrast to their La Liga form, where the Blaugrana have only drawn once.
Dont listen to these clowns and their cheap mind games.
And dont let the guard down. They have issues at back but we also have offensive problems. We have scored 1 goal in last two games and Benzema is ice cold. I mean just lets be honest here.
This game will be a tale of the stoppable force vs the movable object.
Im praying to God Tibu will be back for the clasico or we lose points. Lunin hasnt convinced and defence looks even more shaky with him.
“It is not mathematical(ly done) but it is very difficult.”
No, all you need to do somehow make Inter lose vs a team that has 0 points and -13 in GD, and win vs Bayern who hasnt lost a point and has +11 GD.
No problemo…
Basques should retire for proper replacement. Xavi has been left without ideas going into the champs league. Pique is history. It’s better to use de jong than both. Barcelona is used as training pitch for Spanish players who have lost shape. Sad!
De Jong is a baller but barcelona want to save money but cutting his wage and that doesnt sit well with him.
In fact, its something that should revolt any decent human being.
Contracts are there for a reason. Since he doesnt want to cut down the wages, he is being frozen out, despite being third part of whats arguably their best trident MF setup.
De Jong is paying for barcelonas unwise decisions.
Amazing.
Xavi trusts Sergio so much while he is no longer able to keep pace with fast young players. He makes a love t of mistakes. Yet a coach don’t seem to react. Let the new generation take the lead. The Sergio and Pique eras are over.
Looking at madrid’s team are all young accept 2 or 3 players while with good peformance in the pitch namely benzema, marcelo amoung others. Out of 7 new signings in the previous window only 3 player are able to do the best, sell all players who are not doing anything and replace with players to do something great like robert lowerndonsiki. I love barcelona so its hate me a lot to see my team in bad action in the pitch, let de jong stay he is a quality of player just give him a player to play with along