Gavi dejected after Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid despite top performance: “No use if we don’t win”

Barcelona hosted the first El Clasico of the season in style, in a custom Rolling Stones jersey, and a Rolling Stones tifo, with the legendary band present at the Olympic Saint Montjuic themselves.

With half of their starting XI out injured, Xavi had to tweak his team a fair bit and started the game in a 3-5-2 with Fermin Lopez, Ilkay Gundogan, and Gavi in midfield.

The trio worked very well together for the most part, with Gundo scoring the opener, Fermin hitting the post, and Gavi just generally running the show and dropping a masterclass.

Unfortunately for him, Barça could not hold out Jude Bellingham, who scored a second-half brace to win Real Madrid the game in injury time.

With Barcelona defending their La Liga crown this season, and already four points behind leaders Real Madrid, Gavi said, “La Liga is very long. We have to continue,” as quoted by MARCA.

As pointed out by Xavi and Carlo Ancelotti both, Barcelona were by far the better team for about 65 minutes as they controlled the game and created most of the chances. Fermin and Inigo Martinez even hit the post once each in the first half.

Gavi also doubled down on the stance, suggesting that a display like that warrants a win, and if not, it is pointless.

“It’s worthless to play well if you don’t win.”

Bellingham’s first goal opened the floodgates for Real Madrid to gain control of the match and eventually find the winner through the Englishman again, who was unmarked inside the box.

“The match was marked by details. The first goal made the difference, we can’t be that asleep in those situations. After that we played worse,” Gavi pointed out as well during his post-game presser.

Barcelona now face another tough battle next weekend as they travel to the Basque county to take on Real Sociedad away from home in an attempt to catch up with Girona and Madrid.