“I was expecting 70,000 or 80,000 Cules here but it wasn’t like that”- Xavi Hernandez on FC Barcelona’s loss in the Europa League quarterfinals after around 30,000 Frankfurt fans invaded Cam Nou
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FC Barcelona lost to Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarterfinals of the Europa League 4-3 on an aggregate and 3-2 on the night in their backyard to get knocked out of the tournament. Xavi deems it ‘a very big disappointment’ for the Blaugranas who found them out of the European competition.
Barcelona was outplayed in both legs of the tie and was well beaten by Die Alders at Camp Nou, in front of almost 30,000 fans of the German team who invaded Camp Nou to watch their team make history. This is controversial in itself as away fans shouldn’t be more than 7000 in these games. People responsible are investigating it with the most likely reason being reselling of tickets by fans to Frankfurt fans.
Talking about this unfortunate incident in a recent press conference, Barcelona’s manager Xavi Hernandez said, “This is a very big disappointment, a real shame because we wanted to win this competition but we have to congratulate Eintracht, they deserved to advance to the semis and we didn’t do well. We didn’t play as we have recently, that is why we’re out.”
The Spanish coach also blamed Barcelona’s poor gameplay for their loss to Frankfurt in the Europa League on Friday, claiming that their main problem was the way they played football. He also mentioned that he expected much more Barcelona fans to turn out to support their team in the Europa League quarterfinals but to his astonishment, all he could see was a sea of Frankfurt fans.
“We tried, but our problem was the football. We had possession but we didn’t take advantage of it, our mistake. It was a fateful night. We made many mistakes, their second goal comes from a turnover, the penalty was an error, and in the third goal, we are pressing one side of the pitch and allowed them to move to the other. I was expecting 70,000 or 80,000 Cules here but it wasn’t like that. The club is checking what happened,” added the Spaniard.
What lies ahead for FC Barcelona?
The biggest objective currently for FC Barcelona will be to successfully secure a Champions League spot in La Liga, but they would aim as high as possible on the table. Currently, they sit in second place in the La Liga table, ahead of Seville on goal difference, having 60 points from 30 matches. FC Barcelona will next encounter Cadiz on Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of the match against Cadiz, Xavi still seemed confident and stated that his side can bounce back in the upcoming fixtures. He further highlighted that his team will learn from the mistakes and will continue to compete for the top spot in La Liga 2021-22
“Now we have to recover the players and continue to compete. We play Cádiz on Monday, the league is what’s left and we have to keep going. We cannot move away from the path we were on, we have to believe in what we’re doing. We have played great games, but losses are also part of football. If this is a failure, and I don’t want to use that word, we will learn more from our mistakes. This loss must make us believe in our ideas more, it’s a matter of time and patience,” concluded Xavi.
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Thomas Savio Joseph
(51 Articles Published)