Xavi talks Mateu Lahoz, Alba, Ansu Fati after Barcelona 1-1 Espanyol

Barcelona dropped two valuable points upon the resumption of their La Liga campaign as they played out a 1-1 draw against RCD Espanyol in the Catalan derby.

In a game that was dominated by referee Mateu Lahoz and his controversial calls – he handed out seven yellow cards and two red cards in the space of six minutes in the second half, the Blaugrana never really managed to hit top gear and looked disjointed for large parts.

Marcos Alonso had put the team ahead but ended up conceding a penalty in the second half which Joselu tucked away to level things up.

In another key moment of the game, Jordi Alba saw two yellow cards in a matter of seconds for arguing with the referee. His sending-off means that the veteran will miss the vital clash against Atletico Madrid next week.

Manager Xavi Hernandez, who himself made some questionable calls with his selection and substitution, spoke to the press after the game and gave his take on what had went down at Spotify Camp Nou. Here are the snippets from the press conference.

On the outcome of the game: “The result is our fault. We can talk about the referee but the mistakes are ours, when you forgive so much and you are not effective these things can happen, these are games you have to win.”

On the La Liga title race: “It was important to finish the year with a positive result, it’s true that we are still leaders in the league, alongside Real Madrid, but we lost two points because of us.”

On referee Mateu Lahoz: “Today, Lahoz lost control of the game. The game got out of control. Lahoz is a referee who takes decisions calmly but today he was out of control, but I don’t blame him for anything.

“You ask me about the referee and I can’t control him, he should come out and talk about his decisions.”

On him hugging Lahoz before the game: “He told me he was happy to see me, I told him I was also happy.”

On Jordi Alba’s sending off: “Jordi Alba told me that he didn’t say anything to Lahoz before he gave him the second yellow card.”

On the performance of his team: “We created chances until the 30th minute when we dropped off the pace and intensity. Looking at the game we should have won, Espanyol defended well but hardly generated anything, we had clear chances to make it 2-0…”

On whether he spoke to Lahoz after the game: “At the end of the match I told Lahoz that he had lost control… He replied ‘Do you think I’ve lost control?'”

“If Lahoz were speaking at the press conference right now, I would ask him why the game got out of control.”

On whether his players back him: “The players follow me, if I didn’t feel that way I would go home. Today we are all angry with ourselves, you leave angry because the result is unfair for what you have done, but this is football.”

On Ansu Fati: “Ansu looks great, he has played because he is training very well, he has made a tremendous change in terms of defensive work. He has lacked the effectiveness that the team has also lacked, but I see him growing very well.”

Source: BarçaTV+