He went to the locker room. She left Lamine Yamal because she was not feeling well. And Xavi was waiting for him for five minutes. In that period of time, Barça were playing with 10 men. It was then that the penalty occurred due to the handball of I cancel, a play that was invalidated because the VAR detected that there was a previous handball by the Porto player. In the end, Barça won with suffering and achieved its second victory in Europe.
“He felt bad, Lamine felt bad. He had been telling me that before and we took advantage of a break in the game,” Xavi revealed to justify the young forward’s absence for five minutes. The coach waited for Lamine Yamal to return to the grass. But it didn’t happen, so he had to introduce a forced change. Marcos Alonso came in, becoming an unexpected left winger, while Fermín had to transform into a false right winger.
“Pain in the belly”
“He had pain in his belly. We took advantage of that break to try to get him to the locker room quickly. But with 10 we suffered,” acknowledged the Barça coach, admitting that many things had happened during the Portuguese night: Lewandowski’s injury, muscle discomfort from Araujo, the red to Gavi and that disappearance of Lamine for five minutes.
“This is the most difficult club in the world, that’s what I will tell my players. We won 0-1 and the glass looks half empty. We won and it seems little,”
“This is the most difficult club in the world, that’s what I will tell my players. We won 0-1 and the glass looks half empty. We won and it seems little,” said the coach, hurt by the look that has been generated around him. to the victory over Porto, “where everything has happened to us.”
“We don’t have to look for excuses, but we have the best players to keep the ball at home injured. This is Europe, it’s the Champions League, it costs a lot. If we come from ghosts, we have gotten rid of some ghosts”
Barça coach
“But the team has given its all to win the three points,” said Xavi, indicating that they have “abused a lot of playing a lot with Marc Ter Stegen”, emphasizing that the team “lacked a lot of calm and patience.” . In that sense, Barça, according to its coach, “has not been good although many things have happened to us due to Robert’s injury and Lamine’s indisposition. They have, however, been three key points. We must play better, but we already “We’ll do it. We’ll do it!”
6 points out of 6, 0 goals conceded
Xavi did not want to “look for excuses, but we have the best players to keep the ball at home when injured.” He was talking, of course, about Frenkie de Jong and Pedri, who are in the infirmary. “This is Europe, it’s the Champions League, it costs a lot. If we come from ghosts, we have gotten rid of some ghosts.”
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The coach was proud because his team has six points out of a possible six and has not conceded a single goal in Europe. “Yes, we know how to suffer. Yes, it’s true,” Xavi admitted, acknowledging that Barça “hasn’t been good with the ball to make long possessions and dominate the game. We lacked calm and patience to go for the second. But “In the second half we weren’t good, in the first I think we were. We have extraordinary defenders, like Jules and Ronald, with a clean sheet.”
Xavi has thus praised the defensive behavior of Koundé and Araujo, being fundamental in the construction of the Barça victory.