Barça missed the opportunity to get closer to Real Madrid (they are still 8 points away) and to beat Girona with their goalless draw in San Mamés, they lost Frenkie de Jong and Pedri due to injury, and Xavi Hernández did not adapt well. He admitted that his team had lacked the character and ambition to pursue the victory that would give it more life in the League. “It’s a feeling of disappointment. We lacked a point of determination, of going for the game,” summed up his anger.
“We have not been at the level that the match required, we have lacked a point of ambition to go further for the match. It was a very big opportunity that has been lost,” acknowledged the Terrassa coach at the press conference. “We have to show more ambition, we had to go for the game,” he repeated into the TV3 microphone.
“We started well, but incomprehensibly we have lowered the level, the injuries must have affected the level of the team, but the feelings are not good. It was the day to take a step forward and we have not taken it. “You have to be self-critical.”
“It is incomprehensible that we lacked ambition. I agree that it is a difficult field, only Madrid had won here, it was not due to a lack of desire, but we needed to go harder for the game,” his message of complaint echoed.
“I think we have given everything, the team has emptied itself. But we have not been making good progress with the ball, nor have we had the patience to attack well. That is why I say that we lacked belief,” he responded when asked about the fall. of the team’s performance when it arrived at San Mamés with good feelings and the possibility of getting closer to Madrid.
Even so, despite still being 8 points behind Real Madrid without having been able to get closer, Xavi believes that “there is still a League”. “There are 11 days left, we have to recover the face we showed in the game against Getafe, it is the Barça we want to be.”
Ter Stegen, Barça’s goalkeeper, expressed his dissatisfaction with the result, which is holding back the team in its attempt to catch up with Real Madrid: “We are left with the feeling that we could have done something more. We have to do our homework. We don’t look to the others, we have to win the games. We were going for the three points and we haven’t achieved them.”
The German goalkeeper was upset when he was asked on TV3 if Barça had lacked ambition in San Mamés. “What this locker room does not lack is ambition, I don’t like people talking about this. Today it couldn’t be and we tried until the end. There is still the League, we are going to continue in the fight until the last day.
