Xavi talks Dani Alves, Champions League and ticket scandal after Barcelona 0-1 Cadiz

Barcelona suffered back-to-back defeats in the space of four days as they were handed a 1-0 loss by Cadiz at Camp Nou on Monday night in La Liga.

Having been dumped out of the UEFA Europa League by Eintracht Frankfurt last Thursday courtesy of a home defeat, Xavi Hernandez & co. needed to produce a strong reaction against the relegation battlers on Monday.

But it was not to be as a strike from Lucas Perez early in the second half condemned the Blaugrana to their first La Liga loss since early December last year.

Manager Xavi Hernandez spoke after the game, in which he lamented over the team’s performance on the night, saying: “We created a lot of chances to win the match, but it didn’t work out in the end. Cádiz played a great defensive match.”

“We have to be self-critical, analyse what we’re doing wrong and change the negative dynamic as soon as possible,” he added.

The 42-year-old then insisted that the team must win the rest of the games to ensure qualification for the UEFA Champions League next season.

“We’ve lost another final and there are still seven games left. We have to qualify for the Champions League next season,” Xavi added.

The manager also explained his decision to start Sergino Dest over Dani Alves at right-back saying: “Dani Alves had some problems before the start of the game.”

Xavi also expressed his dismay over the ‘Animation Stand’ boycotting the game in protest of the ticketing fiasco that went down for the Eintracht Frankfurt clash.

“It’s a shame that the animation stand group didn’t attend because we needed them, but once again the public has risen to the occasion,” he said.

Further talking about the performance on the night, Xavi added that he felt the team made errors they should not have made.

“I am angry because we did not play well. We have to improve a lot if we want to qualify for the Champions League. We made mistakes that shouldn’t be made. We have to be a more competitive team,” he said.

He also insisted that he will take the responsibility for the result and talk to his players about what needed to be done. “I consider myself the most responsible person and I will talk to my players,” he stated.

Following the win over Real Madrid last month, there was a lot of optimism surrounding the club. However, Xavi insisted that recent results show that the team still has a lot of work to do and urged that it is important to stay humble and keep working hard.

“When you win 0-4 at the Bernabéu, it’s logical that you say things like Barça is back… But I’m telling you now that we’re making mistakes, that we must have more faith and desire. We have to be a more competitive team,” he said.

“We have to be humble because we haven’t achieved anything… We have to improve our game in order to qualify for the Champions League.”

Xavi was also quizzed about the Camp Nou ticket scandal last week, to which he said that the club president had given him an explanation and will soon be addressing the fans regarding the same.

“Tickets’ scandal? Yes, Laporta has already given me an explanation of what happened last Thursday. He prefers to make it public tomorrow,” he claimed.

Finally, the manager said that his players were angry after the last two results and added that he has been urging them to start upping their performances for the final run-in.

“The players are angry, I have encouraged them but I ask them to compete better starting on Thursday. We will have another final,” Xavi said.

Source: BarçaTV+