Barça coach Xavi: The defeat hurts us but Rayo were worthy winners
The Barcelona boss said his team were not good enough in Vallecas
FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández commented at the end of the match against Rayo Vallecano that the Madrid side's victory was "fair" and that his team did not know how to "read the game" to get a positive result.
"We didn't play well, we were never comfortable. We knew the difficulty of this match. They were very intense and we didn't make the most of our chances," said Xavi, who felt "the second goal, which penalised us, with the rebound off De Jong, was key. We played with courage, but Rayo were deserved winners because they were intense, aggressive and put us under suffocating pressure. Even so, we tried until the end."
The Barça boss insisted that the defeat "hurts, but it is one game less." Xavi wanted to make it clear that the team is not srugging because "against Atlético Madrid we were very good, this time we were bad, we were sluggish. It was a good opportunity, but we shouldn't think that we are in a negative dynamic because the game against Atlético was brilliant in many moments."
Long way to go
The message to his players, however, was clear: "There is still a long way to go. The league is not won, every away game is a battle, Madrid lose, Atlético find it hard to win. It's a defeat that annoys us and now we have two home games to get over what has happened."
On the match, he added that "we failed to read that the game was (playing on the) inside, we abused the long pass, we lost unnecessary balls, we were more sluggish than normal. We have to congratulate Rayo and let's get back to Saturday."
