Xavi expressed his “pride” in Barcelona triumph against Real Madrid on Sunday. This granted the Catalans a 12-point lead in La Liga. He believed that the team’s victory was well-deserved and brushed off any objections from Carlo Ancelotti regarding Marco Asensio’s disallowed goal.
The game at Camp Nou appeared to be ending in a 1-1 tie. But Frank Kessie, a substitute midfielder, scored the winning goal during injury time. Thereby, granting Barcelona a significant victory in the race for the title. Real Madrid took an early lead with a Ronald Araujo own goal in the ninth minute. But Sergi Roberto leveled the score just before half time.
What did Xavi say after Barcelona victory?
Barcelona boss Xavi said:
“It’s not decided, still a lot of games to play, but it’s huge. I think we deserved the win, we were better, we created more chances.”
“The team really gave everything, we worked on defence and attack in everything. It’s a huge win for Barcelona. We gain a lot of confidence with this win.”
Nonetheless, the outcome of the game, and conceivably the dynamics of the title race, could have been altered just moments before Kessie’s game-winning goal. This seals the title for Barcelona for sure. Real Madrid winger Asensio had seemingly given his team the lead. But VAR intervened, ruling out the goal due to Asensio’s slight offside position. However, Real manager Ancelotti remained unconvinced by the decision.
Ancelotti said:
“We did not win because of an offside that we’re still doubtful about. It was not so sure. We have doubts about it, and we go back to Madrid with this doubt.”
The Barcelona manager faced a tough decision before the match on whether to choose Roberto or Kessie to replace the absent Pedri in midfield. Ultimately, his choices were justified. As Roberto scored the equalizer, and Kessie came off the bench to score the winning goal for Barcelona
“I had some doubts, Sergi or Franck – who? Those were the two options I had. Finally it worked well because both scored. They were both heroes.”
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