Barcelona head coach Xavi has opened up on his frustration at Real Madrid not being held to the same standards as his side.
La Blaugrana secured a 1-0 Copa del Rey semi final first leg win away in the Spanish capital and they currently lead the defending champions by seven points in the La Liga title race.
Victory in Madrid continued a strong El Clasico record for Xavi, winning three of his last four meetings with their old rivals, including the Spanish Supercopa final at the start of 2023.
However, with Barcelona winning via an own goal in midweek, Xavi faced questions over a more pragmatic style so far this season, in a change from the club’s image.
Despite the tactic yielding results, Xavi was irritated by the claims, claiming the same comments are not made towards Real Madrid, after a tight win.
“Barca is the most difficult club in the world, you beat Real Madrid 1-0 away, and it’s ‘not convincing’, but if it’s the other way around, it’s a national holiday!, as per reports from Marca.
“At Barca we have to win and convince, and that’s our objective.
“Our opponent is the current La Liga and Champions League holders, and if they push you hard, it’s difficult.”
Barcelona face Valencia in league action tomorrow, and they can move ten points clear with a win, as Real Madrid play later in the day.
This is ironic – it was Xavi himself (the player) who constantly berated Mourinho and Madrid for playing “anti-football” to stop what he considered as the “Barca way of playing”. The realities of his own limitations comes to fruition because although what he is resorting to has to be justified by himself, calling it a double-standard is rich – he created that standard! Make no mistake – his Barca is deeply flawed and only looks good against Madrid through Madrid’s own habit of sabotaging themselves. It will take just an act of Madrid getting their act together to deny a trophy for the fans to turn against Xavi (they already are doing – witness the comments after the Man United exit). Madrid keeps handing him a lifeline… hopefully not for too long.
I never read xavis rants, the catalan hypocrisy is too much to take.
To me its weird that Madrid one day goes and beats Liverpool on the Anfield 5-2 then loses 0-1 home to a barcELona without key players.
Either xavi exclusively studies RM tapes 24/7 and has game only vs them or there is some sort of silent agreement in place. The clubs have become far too friendly lately for my tastes. The Nogreira scandal just reinforced my theory, not even ome person goes on record to stick it to barcELona after that was brought to light. Mourinho would feast on their souls for weeks if this happened during his term.
Xavi in his noise barca sent alot of players to loan and some transfer to balance the book but his selfish selection of Spanish players cos were barca re today due injuries look at Memphis today,re we saying fern tires antu, raphina re better than him?wat of Abde ,jutgla,aubhembayen?
We needed jutgler in that team now.