Xavi angers Barcelona board with Girona post-match comments
- Barcelona were beaten 4-2 by La Liga leaders Girona at the weekend
- Xavi has insisted that Barca played well in the game
- Barca's board has disagreed with Xavi's assessment of the performance
Barcelona's hierarchy are frustrated by head coach Xavi's surprising analysis of their damning defeat to Girona on Sunday.
La Blaugrana were thoroughly beaten 4-2 by La Liga leaders Girona at the weekend, a result which has left the club wallowing in fourth place and a whopping seven points adrift of top spot after 16 rounds of the 2023/24 season.
Despite the nature of the defeat, Xavi was oddly chipper in his post-match press conference, stating his believe that his team played well against Girona.
"It is not a bad game for Barca," Xavi said. "Last year we also suffered a blow, but we won two titles. This is a Barca under construction. Construction has this. You take one step back to take two steps forward.
"We deserved more, but that's football. When you're not so forceful in defence you receive a very hard blow. Girona has a great team. We haven't played bad football. That lack of forcefulness, it costs us a heavy defeat that is difficult to digest but we have to get up."
According to Cadena Ser, these comments have not gone down well with the Barca board, who emphatically disagree with Xavi's assessment of the game on Sunday evening.
The report states that club president Joan Laporta expressed his displeasure at the fact that Barcelona were outplayed by Girona on Sunday evening, leading to doubts creeping in about Xavi's management of the club.
The sentiments shared in private by Laporta echo the statement sporting director Deco gave after the game to DAZN, stating: "We haven't played a good game. We haven't been forceful.
"I think we started well. [Girona] started winning. We tied. We were not strong enough to win the game. They were forceful, they knew what they were coming for and they have quality.
"We have tried but we couldn't."
Barcelona will be hoping to bounce back from that defeat with wins over Royal Antwerp in the UEFA Champions League and Valencia in La Liga this week.
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