Xavi Hernández had one of those unpleasant ballots that correspond to a coach: showing his face in the bad, after his team received a severe setback (3-1 against Valladolid) in the second consecutive defeat in the League after getting title. The Terrassa coach admitted it: "We have failed, we have not been at our best level, but it is the result of détente," justified the Blaugrana coach on Dazn TV.
It also fell to Xavi, once again, to act as spokesman for the club in a thorny matter: the acquittal of Vinícius by the Competition Committee of the Spanish Federation, which has forgiven him the red card of his expulsion against Valencia on Sunday .
Xavi, in the first instance, in the canutazo for television, did not enter into the matter: "It is a question for the committee. I have no opinion on the matter," he got rid of the dead man.
But in the press conference in front of all the media, with the message already more elaborate, he referred to the forgiveness of the Brazilian: "I already said that we must end racism and insults in football. But what happens in football is something else." the field. It is impeccable that there was an attack [by Vinícius], and one thing has nothing to do with the other".
Regarding the defeat in Valladolid, according to Xavi, “it is difficult to prepare for these games with the objective already achieved. The result is the fruit of our détente," he explained.
"We had four or five clear chances in the first half and in the second half we lowered our level of play. The result is fair for Valladolid, they need more than us and it has been shown", argued the Terrassa coach.
The Barça coach also found a reason to justify his team's downturn in play: the physical wear and tear at this stage of the season, in which there was a World Cup five months ago. "You have to take into account that it has been the year of the World Cup, we have had 17 players playing it and that weighs heavily, the players are very loaded; we have covered the objective of the Spanish Super Cup and the League and we have had a great season".
Even so, Xavi admitted that Barça hadn't been good at all: "Today we didn't give a good image, only in the last half hour of the first part. From there we went down. I'm a little sad about the image we've given, there are two games left and we want to improve it.
Regarding Ter Stegen's change at half-time, Xavi commented that it was because he wanted the German to win the Zamora Trophy for the goalkeeper with the fewest goals scored in the League: "Zamora's goal is clear, and to also give Iñaki Peña a chance We have individual objectives because the collective ones have already been achieved".
