FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez admitted he is “destroyed” and begged for the fans’ forgiveness following a 4-1 Spanish Super Cup final thrashing against Real Madrid in Riyadh on Sunday.
Barca were pretty much done in 10 minutes at the KSU Stadium, as Vinicius Jr. sunk them with a three-minute double.
Robert Lewandowski pulled one back to make things interesting, but Vinicius completed his hat trick before the interval ahead of Rodrygo knocking the final nail in Barca’s coffin 20 minutes into the second half.
Post-match, an under-pressure Xavi said he felt “disappointment” and “sadness” after his team “played the worst possible game”.
“I want to apologize to the fans, we have not been able to compete,” Xavi accepted, with Madrid doing Barca “a lot of damage on the counter attack”.
“We must accept the criticism. We have not lived up to [the occasion]. We should use this as a lesson,” he demanded, expecting an avalanche of a reaction from the “entorno” environment that surrounds the club.
“You can’t start a final like this, conceding so many chances… We were very bad in those 10 minutes, and although we later reacted with Lewandowski’s goal, the penalty, which wasn’t a penalty, was a very hard blow,” Xavi claimed, analysing the game further.
That being said, however, he wasn’t attempting to pass the blame and pointed the finger at himself.
“I’m the one most responsible [for the result] … I will endure it and continue working. We have recovered from tough defeats.”
“Barca will rise, we have not been at the level that the match, the rival, the final, or the club demanded,” he conceded.
When asked at a post match press conference if there will be new signings, Xavi shut this down by stating, “today the club cannot sign anyone” and shedding light on the club’s debt-ridden, economic reality.
Barca might have hope in Vitor Roque, however, who arrived from Atletico Paranaense at the turn of 2024 but didn’t play a single minute in Barca’s failed defense of its Spanish Super Cup crown ceded to the worst possible foe.
