Tonight in Montjuïc a door of time opens. The match against Porto will mark whether Barcelona travel towards the hopeful future and advance to the last eight of the Champions League, and put the recent hardships behind them. Or if, on the contrary, Xavi’s team returns to the stagnation of the dark past, continues to not find its personality and complicates life in the top continental competition for the third consecutive season.
The message could not be clearer. A win against Porto takes the Blaugrana to the next stage as group leaders. “It would be fulfilling one of the objectives of the season”, confirmed Xavi Hernández. They can even qualify for a draw – the position remains to be clarified – but this will only be known minutes before 9pm, if Shakhtar are surprised by Antwerp. It remains to be seen how Can Barça would feel if the ticket arrived more because of other people’s mistakes than because of their own merits.
The team is at a point where it is not worth half-heartedly. Vallecas’ draw was not the best preamble to face the visits of Porto, Atlético and Girona, who will pass through Lluís Companys in two weeks. A European collapse would lead to a crisis in which even the fine print of the project would be questioned and no one could be safe. Victory or barbarism would be a fatalistic summary.
However, right now Xavi doesn’t feel that his chair on the bench is moving, despite the fact that the team is not slowing down and has fallen 4 points behind Real Madrid in the League. The coach assures that he feels the support of the whole club and does not feel alone. ” Ground? Fortunately, no.”
“I speak every day with the most responsible person, the president, and I feel a lot of trust. Also from the sports director. There is faith in the project. Laporta, Deco, Márquez… We all add up. I firmly believe that we will play well again. If not, I wouldn’t be here”, he said. “But let me try”, he said to claim some peace in the environment.
In this sense, the one from Terrassa does not give any second reading to the fact that the manager was with Barça Atlètic in Palamós on Sunday and the same club distributed the photograph congratulating Márquez and the subsidiary. “It is a sign that we are united. The president always comes down to the dressing room with us. There is no interpretation, but it denotes a sense of normalcy. He also does it with the women’s, with the sections…”, he recalled.
Big games are coming up and Xavi chooses to do the orni to concentrate on finding the key that makes Barcelona’s game evolve. Out of doors, the technician conveyed an image of tranquility and of having the situation under control. “I’m fine, with energy, and I’m positive. I think that the more work, the luckier I am, that’s what they taught me”, he revealed about his state of mind, before proclaiming his blind faith in footballers. In his opinion, they also identify with his model and his style. “People are happy with the plan”, he pointed out.
Of course, a team that has a hard time dominating games and unbalancing rival defenses, with some strikers in low hours, was a bit of a nuisance. “There are times when you need to be more generous, more humble, and work harder”, he harangued. Xavi still does not know if he will be able to count on Ter Stegen, who will be tested today.
It is not the first time that Barça has everything within reach and in front of its fans to put both feet in the last eight of the Champions League and it is wrong. It already happened to Xavi in ??2021 against Benfica, against whom he could not win (0-0), and this meant that he ended up in the Europa League for the first time in 18 years. And it happened again last season, when they needed to beat Inter at the Camp Nou but the 3-3 practically meant goodbye. In the third, Xavi cannot fail. “You have to go to the maximum from the first minute. You have to be a competitive animal.” Barça is trying to forget the calamities of the recent past or relive them.