Barcelona returned to winning ways on Wednesday after securing a 3-2 victory over Almeria at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. The Catalans had twice led through Raphinha and Sergio Roberto, before being pegged back on both occasions. However, Roberto’s late strike was enough for the three points.
It was undoubtedly a very frustrating evening for Barcelona, who had several chances to score even more goals – although it was their defensive effort that infuriated head coach Xavi Hernandez, who lamented errors by Ronald Araujo and Inaki Pena at Almeria’s two equalisers, as per Marca.
“There was more suffering than I expected and than we deserved. We shot 30 times and gave away two goals. As a coach, the first half is unacceptable. The second half was better. We’ve failed a lot and we’ve been in that vein for a month and a half or two.”
“As a coach I don’t accept it. Either we run like animals or we won’t get there. We are not the Barca of 2010, what gave us titles last year was a team with soul, that won duels, aggressive, that went to pressure high. In the second half you do it and you win. In the first one we don’t give everything and people get nervous, they whistle. Either we give up our skin, we give up our lives or we won’t win anything. If it doesn’t come to us through football, it has to come to us through our soul.”
Xavi also expressed his delight with the matchwinner Roberto.
“I’m satisfied that it’s Sergi Roberto because he’s an example, whether he plays or not. He almost scored a hat-trick, but beyond that is the work, how he encourages people. I’m happy for him.”
Barcelona will go into the winter break with some satisfaction, although there are plenty of things that Xavi and his staff need to work on ahead of their next competitive match, which is against Las Palmas on the 4th of January.
