There are no days of rest or peace of mind at FC Barcelona, a club that has been permanently on a roller coaster in recent times. Even if they play in Antwerp, a peaceful place where Xavi's men will play the last game of the Champions League group stage, knowing they are the team for the round of 16. Although the calculator also specifies that only the Ukrainian Shakhtar could challenge the leadership with a most bizarre carom: beating Porto by more than seven goals in Portugal. The present, or rather, the heavy defeat against Girona in Montjuïc says that these are tense days for a Barça that is not advancing with the speed it requires.
The win by Míchel's team is one that is remembered. The Catalan derby was, in Xavi's eyes, the one that should begin to distance Barça from being a team under construction in his third season as coach. “When I say under construction it is because we have to improve things, with new players, young players... I mean we have to be constant, play better. And not because it needs time. A month and a half ago I already said that I think we are halfway to making a great Barça,” the coach justified, trying to explain some words that were not understood in the Barcelona environment, always expectant and critical of the peaks of equipment irregularity.
Even so, Xavi maintained that “we are better than Girona.” And he said that for that reason “we are all angry. Because we lost despite doing many things to win. It happened to us like we did against Real Madrid, we played better but we didn't control both areas, we lacked forcefulness and effectiveness. Now, we have to react,” he ordered. And he said it without smiling, something that is not usual in his press appearances. Assuming that he lost the great peace of mind that winning Míchel's team would have given him after the therapeutic and necessary victories against Porto in the Champions League and Atlético in the League. Winning the Catalan derby was closing the perfect trilogy. And the best way to face the final stretch of three other games – Antwerp in the Champions League, the always hostile visit to Mestalla against Valencia and Almería's visit to Montjuïc in the League – before closing a 2023 of lights and shadows.
Faced with so much pressure, there was a last-minute change in the squad of footballers who traveled to Belgium. Araújo, Gündogan and Lewandowski, who had to stay in Barcelona to rest, got on the plane. Xavi, after a meeting with Deco and Laporta, decided that it was the best thing to keep the team together. Frenkie de Jong would have done the same if it weren't for the fact that he had a fever. “We have changed our mind. All together. The president, Deco and me. We are not going down different paths,” Xavi stressed. “And I've talked to the players. Finally we return to Barcelona on Thursday and travel so as not to be away from the group for three days. It's a good reaction for everyone to be involved. We will do a video session, they will train and we will see if they play,” added the Blaugrana coach.
In this last-minute decision there is another variant that the club's offices are very aware of: the economic one. We have to beat Antwerp since it would mean earning an extra 2.8 million. A very attractive amount for a club that, for too long now, has not been going through its best financial moment. Forced to part with his assets by activating levers, cutting staff, closing his television, with a stadium under construction and with an infinite million-dollar debt. They already lost in Montjuïc against Shakhtar (1-0). That hurt in the offices of those who keep the numbers. The same ones who insisted that it was necessary for Xavi's team to travel to Dallas to face a friendly against América on December 22. The same ones who regretted that three million more were lost on the American tour when the match against Juventus in San Francisco could not be played due to gastroenteritis. Every profit adds up. And it's still not enough.
“But we will rotate,” Xavi warned. “It is a good time to give opportunities to the youngest players or those who play less,” he added, referring to players like Oriol Romeu, Sergi Roberto, Fermín, Balde and even Pau Cubarsí, a 16-year-old youth centre-back who, faced with absences due to injury of Marcos Alonso and Iñigo Martínez, has already entered the squad list for the match against Girona. Xavi's message is clear: “We must finish this group stage of the Champions League well. We can and must play better.”
