Xavi Warned FC Barcelona Fans Will ‘Kill’ Him If Team Plays Like In Real Madrid Win Every Week

FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez has been warned that the club’s fans will “kill” him if his team plays as it did against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg every week.

The Catalans went back home with a 1-0 advantage after Eder Militao scored a 26th minute own goal that ended up deciding the game.

In his pre-match press conference, Xavi had vowed that Barca would take the same approach as they did in the 3-1 Spanish Super Cup final win over Los Blancos in January despite injuries to the likes of Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Robert Lewandowski.

The coach did indeed set his team up the same way, with the four man midfield system that sees Gavi act as a false left winger deployed from the outset.

Rather than taking the game to Madrid, dispossessing them in their own half and keeping hold of the ball, however, Barca played most of the match on the backfoot.

Granted it turned out to be a defensive masterclass with Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde particularly impressive containing Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema respectively as Madrid didn’t enjoy a single shot on goal.

But with his rivals enjoying just 35% of possession, Carlo Ancelotti said “I don’t think Barca will play a game like this at Camp Nou” in the second leg on April 5 and is right.

Put simply, Barca won’t and can’t as Culers wouldn’t put up with it. As journalist Dani Senabre warned via Catalan digital newspaper El Nacional: “If Barca played like this every week, we would kill him, burn the Camp Nou, ask for resignations…

“If Xavi always played like that, we would kill him,” Senabre repeated, to further underline his point.

As one of the greatest ever pupils of Barca’s famed La Masia academy, however, who has admitted to being irritated when his team doesn’t have the ball and wants it as much as a coach as he did during his playing days, Xavi wasn’t pleased with the style of play either.

“I am satisfied, but we have to improve how we play with the ball; we cannot give dominance to the opposition. I’m satisfied with the result and not so much with the game.” he stated to local media after the full time whistle.

“This is not the game we want. We want to create more scoring chances. There are times when the opponent can dominate you,” Xavi added.

“The plan was different, to dominate in the opposition’s half. To defend with the ball, but today we couldn’t. We weren’t neat with the ball, but Madrid didn’t have clear chances – [so] it’s a very important win for us.”

On Sunday in La Liga against Valencia, Xavi will probably push his men back towards adopting the approach that has been so successful for Barca this term and currently has them seven points clear of Madrid at the top of the table.