Xavi says Barcelona must now focus on LaLiga

Barcelona’s Champions League future looks bleak following the 3-3 draw against Inter Milan at the Camp Nou. The Catalan side needed a win to keep their fate in their own hands and were unable to do so.

Manager Xavi Hernandez was very direct in his post-match press conference when asked to break down the disappointing draw and his team’s chances of progressing to the next round.

“The Champions League is being cruel to us this season,” Xavi said. “Against Bayern Munich, we were not clinical enough. There were other circumstances in Milan last week, but there is no need to talk about [those refereeing decisions], and then tonight it is down to defensive mistakes.

“Our chances of going through are very remote now. We won’t lose hope, but the situation is really difficult. We no longer depend on ourselves and it is down to our own errors.”

While he didn’t name them directly, it was errors by Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets that sunk Barcelona on the night. Pique fell asleep for Inter’s first goal whereas Busquets gave away the ball for the second.

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Xavi was realistic and has seemingly already turned all his attention on Real Madrid and LaLiga.

“It’s a very hard loss,” Xavi added. “The word is cruel. But now we have to think about Madrid. We’ll recover well and try to win at the Bernabeu. We’ve got to put the Champions League on hold and think about the league because we’re leaders and we want to continue being so.”

Xavi stopped short of saying his team need to put all its focus on the league because, by all intents and purposes, barring results going their way, they’re going to crash out of the Champions League once again.

While their poor form has cost them progressing in the Champions League, they’ve still done just enough to pull off results in LaLiga. With one disappointment already in the books, they need a result against Real Madrid to boost their confidence.

Winning LaLiga will be important come next season as it should, in theory, give them a more favorable group to try to get out of. On the bright side, Xavi could have a much needed reinforcement back in the form of Jules Kounde.