Everything Xavi had to say after the 0-4 defeat at Camp Nou to Real Madrid

The Catalan manager was understandably downbeat after Real Madrid’s 0-4 destruction of FC Barcelona at Camp Nou.

FC Barcelona fell to a devastating 0-4 home defeat (1-4 aggregate) against eternal rivals Real Madrid at Camp Nou in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final. Barça boss Xavi Hernández sat down in front of the press after the game, where he talked about the result, the future, the fans, and the damage a result like this does.

How do you explain what happened?

When football games are so even, you have to take advantage of the moments. We didn’t do that in the first half and they did in the second. They were better, there are no excuses. It’s a difficult defeat to manage.

How do you explain such a radical change between the first and second halves?

The second goal does us a lot of damage. The penalty as well... the details. We didn’t take advantage of our moments and as I said before the game, Madrid were the favourite. They’re the Champions League winners, a great team.

Does it hurt more to have lost or how you lost?

Not the how, because we competed until the end. In the first half we were very good, but it’s what I said, football is about moments and we didn’t take advantage of them.

How do you feel right now?

It’s a difficult game to manage because this is football and I said yesterday that Madrid were the favourites. We were OK, but we became disorganised after the 0-2 in the second half. We have to learn to compete better. From my point of view it’s a tough result to take, but we have to focus on the league and we can’t argue about the fact that they’re a great team. When you don’t kill Madrid, they kill you. We have to learn from our mistakes.

Is it a defeat with any sort of message for the future?

We have to compete better. We competed well until the 0-1. They are moments in which we can’t stop but we don’t have to blame any single player. We could have stopped the move for the 0-2 as well. Anyway, they’re details that we have to control. The team gave everything they had. We had a great first half.

What about the fans?

They were amazing. Even with the scoreboard against us. But it wasn’t enough. We had a terrible second half, but we have to lift ourselves off the floor. Tomorrow we’ll wake up full of enthusiasm to play the match against Girona.

Thoughts on the heavy result?

Last year we beat them 0-4 and we didn’t win anything at the end of the season. This year you lose 0-4 and you can win the league. Now it’s time to rest for the game against Girona.