Xavi apologised to Barcelona’s supporters after his side’s “awful” performance in the Spanish Super Cup final against Real Madrid.
Vinícius scored his three goals in the first half as Madrid beat Barcelona to lift its first trophy of the season on January 14. After his first goal, the Brazil forward imitated the trademark celebration of the former Madrid great, with Ronaldo reportedly at the Riyadh stadium.
“It was for Cris, because he is my idol and now he is playing here,” said Vinícius, who was named the best player of the final. “I’m very happy with myself and with my team. It’s not easy to play against Barcelona and to win 4-1 is tough. We played an almost perfect match.”
Rodrygo also scored for Madrid, which now has 13 Super Cup trophies, one less than the Catalan club. Madrid claimed their second Super Cup triumph since the tournament relocated to Saudi Arabia four years ago. Robert Lewandowski scored Barcelona’s goal to make it 2-1 in the first half in Spanish Super Cup Final.
Barca, with just ten men after Ronald Araujo received a red card, played the final 20 minutes of the 4-1 defeat. However, Xavi expressed his frustration over his team’s poor start to the match. “We can’t come into a final like this. We’ve been awful in defence and in the high pressing,” the Barca boss said at his post-match press conference. “You just can’t start a final losing 2-0. Then we got back a bit with Robert Lewandowski’s goal, but the penalty, which wasn’t a penalty in my opinion, took us down again. Then the second half has been really bad.
On the defensive side of the game, we did not stop their runs. We did not make fouls. They live off that, that’s where the first two goals came from. We knew it and work to stop it in training, but it didn’t work out. Not just as a Barca manager, but as a Barca fan I am very sad. That’s all I can say. Apologies to our fans but we’ll bounce back.”
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The final result piles more pressure on Xavi, with Barcelona also eight points behind Real Madrid in the La Liga title race and struggling for consistency in all competitions. It has been suggested that the Spaniard is now on borrowed time in the Camp Nou hot seat, but he insists that everyone in the dressing room is still pulling in the same direction and has no doubt he can still turn things around.
“I am ready to get all the criticism that will come. No problems. I believe in this project, in myself, in the footballers,” Xavi added. “I think we are capable to revert this. There are three titles remaining. It’s a hard blow, but this is sport. I’m still confident and I feel strong. What can I do to convince fans? We can look back and see that, with me in the club, we have won trophies. Have already done it. We did everything last year to believe Barca was in the start of a new era. Now it’s time to hold on, reset things and fight for titles.”