Xavi: “We are proud for the game and for dominating our rival”

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez spoke to the media in Riyadh after his team’s 2 - 3 loss to Real Madrid in the Spanish SuperCopa semi-finals. Xavi spoke about his team’s effort, the results, and performance of both teams.

“We have lost. We have been superior to Real Madrid at many times,” Xavi said. “We cannot have high morale because we have lost, but it is a very important turning point.”

Xavi said that when down 2 - 3, they had many opportunities to tie the game, but that Real Madrid also had the chance to make it 2 - 4.

“We were close to the 3-3 on several occasions. They also had 4-2.” Xavi explained. “We’re sad, we’re angry. We can be proud of the game we played”

Xavi also further explained his analysis on the game, as well as how close he thinks Barcelona are to Real Madrid currently.

“We have dominated them in many phases,” Xavi said. “Due to our mistakes of not stopping the opposition, they took advantage of us. We leave with pride, but certainly sad for the result. We feel very bad for the defeat, but proud for the game and for dominating the rival. We lacked patience, responsibility, but we are on the right track. We lack that inflection point to go up.

“If we talk about today, we are close to Real Madrid. In the league we are 17 points away. Today we have competed. If we toss a coin and Barça passes, nothing happens. Barça also deserved to go to the final.”