Night of contrasts that Barcelona experienced in San Sebastián. He left the Reale Arena with the three points. But with the bitter feeling of someone who does not deserve it. "I have the opposite feeling from last week. We lost the classic without deserving it and today it was the other way around. Today we have to be self-critical with the level of play. We cannot stay with the result, this is not the way," said a critic Xavi Hernández. "The players still carried that pain for having lost the classic. But we won unexpectedly," he added, visibly angry.
The coach focused his criticism on the team's performance in the first half. "I asked them if they were tired because that intensity is unacceptable. You can't compete like that. In the second half we improved and we took three golden points. But it's okay to say that Real has been better than us, that they deserved more and that we cannot afford those first parts," he said. "Even so, when you win and you haven't been good, it's better than playing well and losing because confidence goes up. This type of victory in which the team shows character and, without deserving it, wins also speaks of a champion team," he stressed.
One of the protagonists of the meeting was Pedri. "Pedri is going to change the face of the game in the center of the field. He has been good despite his absence during these 71 days. His return is great news. I also wanted to dose the other players who were coming back from injury, like Raphinha or Lewandowski. "Xavi said.
Another angry technician appeared in the press room. This is Imanol Alguacil, coach of Real Sociedad: "We haven't materialized the chances. So fair defeat. I'm angry with the way we defended at the end. We disconnected and that's Barcelona's credit. We will win or lose but It won't be complicated because we know what we have done wrong," he analyzed.
The disastrous script that Barcelona staged had an unexpected twist in the script that is worth three points. Less than a minute from the end, in the 92nd minute, a header by Ronald Araújo, reviewed and confirmed by the VAR, gave an agonizing victory to the Blaugrana, who today sleep four points behind Girona's lead. "Those are three very important points. "They played very well. It was difficult for us, they put a lot of pressure on us. We improved in the second half and we were finally able to find the goal," said the Uruguayan.
Accepting that the victory was not deserved, Araújo added that "there are games that have to be won and these three points are very important. If it had ended in a draw it would have seemed fair to me. But this is football. And we already know that anything can happen." , he sentenced.
