Xavi angry after Barcelona lose to Rayo Vallecano: “There are no excuses”

Presented with a golden opportunity to stretch their lead atop the La Liga table to 14 points, FC Barcelona threw it away as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday night.

Following Real Madrid’s loss to Girona on Tuesday, it was the perfect chance for the leaders to strengthen their grip on the title. But, instead, Barcelona turned in a tame and listless display at the Vallecas, with Rayo being the better team on the night by far and emerging out victorious.

Manager Xavi Hernandez spoke to the media after the game and claimed that he was very angry with how things had gone on the night, while stating that there were no excuses for how his team played.

“There are no excuses, we have to think about Saturday and get back to the good form we showed against Atlético,” he said. “Today we didn’t play at the level the match required, today I’m angry and the players leave angry too.”

“We are very upset because today we had a very good opportunity to go out with a bigger lead.”

The Barcelona manager admitted that Rayo Vallecano were the deserved winners on the night, as he said: “Rayo deserved the win and we have to congratulate them.”

“The positive thing is that we are closer to winning La Liga, but we have not played a good game, we have not been comfortable. They have been intense and deserved the win.”

Talking about what went wrong for the Blaugrana at the Vallecas, Xavi said: “We abused the long pass, we had to understand Pedri dropping deep so that Balde could come up from behind… We didn’t have a good game.”

“We can’t lack intensity or rhythm, it’s very difficult to win points and it’s not normal to have the points we’ve gained so far.”

“Every game has its own circumstances, the last game against Atlético we were good and we read the game well but today we didn’t. It’s a shame, but we shouldn’t get into a negative dynamic.”

When asked if Barcelona were taking the league for granted due to their 11-point lead on Real Madrid, the manager replied:

“We played a bad game and there’s no excuse, I want to think that it’s because of the difficulty of the league, not because we’ve taken everything for granted.

“La Liga is not over, we haven’t won anything here yet, we have to deserve it more, we have to be more intense and win duels. Today we leave angry because it’s not the match that this level of competition demanded.”

“It’s not a matter of attitude, the proof is the points we’ve earned in the league, winning here is difficult and requires an intensity that we haven’t had, we’ve lost fair, that’s it.”

Reiterating how the Vallecas can be a difficult stadium to win at, Xavi said: “What I want is to win La Liga. I’m angry as a coach that today we didn’t compete as the game deserved, but it’s hard to win, many teams have lost here.

“It’s sad because today we could have taken a very important step forward, fortunately we have an important advantage…”

However, he insisted that just because they have a big lead at the top, they cannot use it as an excuse, saying:

“The advantage we have is important but it can’t be an excuse, we have done our homework well so far but we still have seven games left, now we have two at home that should help us to get six points and recover the competitive rhythm we had against Atlético.”

Source: BarçaTV+