The FC Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, has valued his team's victory by 1 goal to 2 against Betis at the Benito Villamarín in a duel that he has valued as "excellent in many phases of the match". "The team is very involved. Competitiveness, faith, confidence... the illusion is maximum and we have that desire to achieve success," said the man from Terrassa.
Xavi has highlighted the improvement of his team compared to the day in Girona and ensures that they leave Seville "very satisfied". "Today yes. The day of Girona cost us. Each game is a different story. A world. Today we have been brilliant. The objective was to take the ball from Betis and we have achieved it", he said. "I think the team has made a great game. We were able to sentence with Ansu's header and then we got complicated in a specific play, but against an opponent who usually has the ball, we were able to take it away from them", he sums up. .
The Catalan coach liked his players' game so much that he confessed that it was difficult for him to make changes: "We had control, calm, we arrived well... It was difficult to make a change because they were all at an excellent level and we rotated more out of fatigue than performance".
Xavi has valued Gavi's first game with the number '6' on his back, the same one that the man from Terrassa wore in his time as a Barcelona footballer: "I'm happy, like when Riqui or Alves wore it. It makes me nostalgic because I don't I can take it. But I'm happy for him because he's a great footballer and I think he'll take him for many years".
He has also responded to the eternal comparison between Pedri and Iniesta, and Xavi is clear about it: "If we compare the race, Iniesta wins by a landslide. Pedri is very good and is on another level. He is at his level of talent, but Andrés had continuity... and he keeps playing. For me Andrés is the greatest talent I've seen in Spanish football".
Asked about the high level that the young Alejandro Balde has reached, Xavi replied: "Luckily we have three spectacular full-backs: Jordi, Marcos and Balde. All three have done great when they have played. Balde is such a young footballer with so much capacity, which gives us a tremendous guarantee", he summarized.
Another of the protagonists who appeared after the game was Raphinha, scorer of Barcelona's first goal at the Benito Villamarín, who expressed his satisfaction with the team's victory against Betis: “The feeling is very good. We are working very hard and the results of this work are the points we have. It is important to continue having confidence during the season ”, he assured. The Barça player recognized the importance of being successful in front of goal: "We knew it would be a difficult match, Betis is a good team and we knew we had to score the chances we had if we didn't want to suffer".
Lastly, he responded to Betis's complaints about the refereeing: “I don't think the referee favored us. I think he has played a good game. They are people and it is normal for people to make mistakes, but I don't think he favored us. On whether there was a penalty in his encounter with Canales in the area, he is reserved: “I didn't ask for anything, he touched me and I fell. It is up to the referee to know if it is a penalty or not and for that he has the help of the VAR ”, he concluded.
