Xavi Hernandez melancholy after cruel Champions League for Barcelona

Barcelona’s chances of making the knockout stages are hanging by a thread after a damaging 3-3 draw with Inter at Camp Nou. The result means that Barcelona must hope that the Nerazzurri do not beat either of Viktoria Plzen or Bayern Munich, provided they win both their games against the same opponents.

Speaking to Movistar+ after the match, in an interview carried by Diario AS, Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez cut a solemn figure after what he felt was another cruel result for the Blaugrana.

“Negative evaluation. This Champions League is being cruel to us. We conceded a lot in the second half but the first was excellent. The first goal is a clear error from the defensive line that we had talked about. The second… Since Munich, via Milan, it has been cruel. But that is the Champions League. We should have carried out the match from the first half, but it was not to be.”

“We must go on and change our mindset for La Liga. The Champions League has become very difficult.”

Eric Garcia had told the media that they made too many mistakes in defence and Xavi was much of the same mind.

“We went into the break satisfied, but then we paid for the errors. There were errors in defence that are very serious. Paying for mistakes is very expensive in the Champions League.”

Failure to qualify for the knockout stages threatens to derail Xavi’s entire time at Barcelona. Not only will it be a significant financial blow to the club, it will now bring questions to his door about his capability to get the necessary results. Next up Barcelona face Real Madrid on Sunday.