Barcelona coach Xavi was pretty downbeat when offering an update on injuries to Pedri and Frenkie de Jong after Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Athletic Club.
Barcelona missed a great opportunity to take advantage of Real Madrid and Girona dropping points after being held at San Mames.
The Catalans had the opportunity to put some pressure on the league leaders but could only take a point away from the Basque country and never really looked like winning.
Barca struggled to create chances against Athletic, managed just two shots on target and failed to score for the first time since August – a run of 25 games.
Raphinha started the game but was fairly anonymous and was thoroughly outshone by Lamine Yamal after he arrived as a substitute.
Robert Lewandowski also had a quiet game, Joao Felix offered little after coming on as a sub, while Marc Guiu and Vitor Roque didn’t make it off the bench at all.
Xavi admitted after the final whistle hadn’t played well and had missed a big opportunity to put pressure on Real Madrid ahead of the business end of the season.
“Really tough game but I think we didn’t play well. It was not our best version today. I am not happy, not satisfied, it was a very good opportunity to reach second place and still in the race six points behind. It’s not enough today,” he said.
“We didn’t play well. We cannot be happy today because we need to do more. Everybody, me as a coach, the players. OK, we need to improve. It’s a very big opportunity that we missed today.”
Big injuries to Barcelona players
De Jong had to go off midway though the first half with an ankle problem, while Pedri was substituted just before half-time with what looked like a thigh injury.
Here’s what Xavi said after the game:
“The injuries to Pedri and De Jong are not looking good,” he told reporters per barcablaugranes.
“We are sad about these two absences, which will be for quite a few games I imagine.”
Xavi’s comments suggest that both players will miss Barcelona’s upcoming Champions League second leg against Napoli on March 12 which will be a huge blow.
Xavi also spoke about the draw at San Mames after felt the loss of the two players had affected his team’s performances.
“Maybe the injuries affected the team too much but then in the second half with Lamine we created some chances but it was not out game today,” he added.
“We didn’t play well. We cannot be happy today because we need to do more. Everybody, me as a coach, the players. OK, we need to improve. It’s a very big opportunity that we missed today. We need to recover well, think about Mallorca, and keep going.”
Barcelona have a few days to recover before they host Real Mallorca on Friday. Mallorca head into the game fresh from beating Girona 1-0 on Sunday.
