Tuesday, November 5

Xavi: “We've played 60 very good minutes”

EFE

By: EFE Updated 06 Feb 2022, 15: 54 pm EST

The Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, considered that his team played “60 very good minutes” after beat Atlético de Madrid 4-2 at the Camp Nou and thus advance in the standings to the area that gives access to the Champions League.

“We have done very well, we have played an excellent game in the first half. It was a very complete game for the team, we needed a victory like this against a ‘big’ team, as well as the fans”, explained the Barça coach at a press conference.

For Xavi this victory “ it could be a turning point” and he considers that his team would do “very well to win two or three in a row to endorse what is being done”. Although he pointed out that “you have to be humble, because it is only one victory, three points”.

Asked why he thinks Simeone has said that Barça has not been tactically and footballingly superior, the Barça coach did not want to enter into controversy: “ Simeone understands football in a different way, there is 200.000 ways to play football and all are legal. There is no pique. He feels comfortable when his team doesn’t have the ball and to me, if this happens to me, I’m sweating on the sideline”.

In this sense, he explained that “Simeone is a great coach for what he wants to play” and admitted that “as a coach” he is “a rookie at his side“. One of the great protagonists of Barça’s triumph was debutant Adama Traoré, who assisted the second goal and overwhelmed Mario Hermoso over and over again.

“It was a great debut for Adama, he is capable of making a difference, a pure winger that we want to face He is a great signing that is going to help us a lot”, he considered.

In addition, he explained that he was “very supportive defensively, just like ‘Auba’ (Aubameyang) when he came out in the second half and found himself in a situation of one less player” due to the expulsion of Dani Alves.

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