By Sergio Silva
FC Barcelona suffered a tough defeat this Sunday against Girona (4-2)a result that distances the troops led by -1).
Girona, who gave a strong demonstration during their visit to the Montjuic Olympic stadium, now have 41 points at the top of the classification, two more than the merengue team and seven above Atlético de Madrid and FC Barcelona, who were tied. The colchoneros have a better goal difference than the culés.
“It is a hard blow because we had hoped to get within 2 and one points of the top, but this is our reality. This is a team that is under construction and the construction has this. “You take one step back to take two steps forward.”said Xavi Hernández in the press conference after the match corresponding to matchday 16 of the Spanish championship.
FC Barcelona managed to level the score before the 20th minute thanks to Robert Lewandowski (m.19) after having gone behind with a goal from Artem Dovbyk (m.12). However, they were unable to contain Girona’s offensive, which finished off the task with scores from Miguel Gutiérrez, Valery and Cristian Stuani.
“Today it came out tails, but it could have come out heads. We must not doubt at any time. It wasn’t a bad game for Barcelona. Last year we also suffered a similar blow, but we won two titles”recalled the Barça team’s strategist who highlighted the effectiveness of the rival in taking advantage of the opportunities that were presented to them.
“At the group level we are not being so forceful. We lowered the level today and that is why Girona connected”assured Xavi Hernández who reiterated that their pending matter is to improve the definition in front of the rival goal.
“The way it didn’t seem bad to me, what bothers us is the result because we had the game in our hands, but we didn’t take advantage of our moments, something that Girona did. We must be much more effective because that is marking us so far this season.”pointed out the Spaniard.
Finally, the FC Barcelona coach tried to downplay the defeat by ensuring that it is still early in the season and that they still have options in LaLiga, the Champions League as well as the Copa del Rey.
“This year we have several titles at stake and we are in the race for all of them. Now we are in an uncomfortable situation, but we have to continue believing because we didn’t play a bad game today. There is still a lot left and we must be positive”sentenced the DT.
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