Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez justified his team’s painful loss against Athletic Bilbao, 4-2, yesterday evening, Wednesday, in the quarter-finals of the Spanish King’s Cup.
Xavi said, during the press conference after the match: “I already said that we faced bad luck in the draw, and although we were ahead of Bilbao by two goals, we did not qualify in the end.”
He added, according to what was reported by “Sport” newspaper: “We should be proud of trying until the end, even though we lost focus while making mistakes at the beginning, and football depends on mistakes.”
Regarding Lamine Yamal wasting the opportunity to kill the match in the 90th minute, he commented: “I am proud of the young men who played, and this is the cup tournament, and Lamine felt frustrated for not scoring this opportunity.”
Regarding the reason for not including young Fermin Lopez, despite his recent brilliance, he revealed: “Lamin Yamal, Kubarsi and Hector Forte were on the field, and the regulations prevented us from fielding more players than them.”
He continued: “I am calm, because the most important titles remain, such as La Liga and the Champions League, and we will fight for them as we did today.”
He added: “Regardless of what happens this season, we are at the beginning of something important, and this team has a future, and we are leading a very good project for a generation of wonderful players, and they will compete whether I am the coach or not.”
Regarding his fate if he does not win any title this season, he replied: “They are asking me for titles, or at least competing for them.”
He concluded by talking about Vitor Roque’s non-participation: “He is a young man. He participated in the match today, and he will be important in the coming period.”
