Barcelona coach Xavi urged calm after their Copa del Rey semifinal thrashing by Real Madrid.
Real shocked Barca 4-0 at the Nou Camp, with Vini Jr opening the scoring before Karim Benzema’s hat-trick. Real reach the final 4-1 on aggregate.
“We have to be united, it’s a difficult moment. In difficult moments you see how a team reacts. It’s a difficult night to take, a heavy defeat. We competed much better than the result says. Mistakes of not knowing how to compete well penalised us,” said Xavi.
“In the first half we were very good, we were superior in terms of play, chances, aggression. We conceded very little. As for the transitions, we talked about the fact that we had to stop them and that’s where the 0-1 came from. The 0-2 killed us as soon as we came out of the dressing room. In short, it’s a pity. We had a good first half and a bad second half.”
Barça were without Andreas Christensen, Frenkie De Jong, Pedri and Ousmane Dembele but Xavi insisted, “It would sound like an excuse if I said that they have been noticed.
“We competed very well, I’m proud of the first half; in the second we paid dearly for our mistakes. We played against Madrid, for me they were favourites in the tie, as I said. We played against the reigning Champions League winners.”
