MADRID, 4 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The FC Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, highlighted his team’s great game against Sevilla, from which he extracted “very positive things” and “above all the victory” because “not everyone is going to win” at the Sánchez-Pizjuán “in this way”, as the culés have achieved, by 0-3.
“There are very positive things and above all the victory, at Pizjuán, 0-3, not everyone is going to win here like this, just like in San Sebastián, it’s going to cost. It’s very important to keep a clean sheet because We know the potential we have this season at the top, it’s important to defend the area, cover up crosses and keeping a clean sheet gives us a lot of security”, declared the coach at a press conference.
Xavi Hernández also highlighted “how is Marc (Ter Stegen), who is in a sensational moment” and “the defensive line that is working very well”. “I think we have not won comfortably, neither in San Sebastián nor here. I have not felt comfortable at any time. Obviously we have controlled the match, we have dominated it, already with the score of 0-2 it looks different , but it hasn’t been easy at all,” he said.
The coach explained that “Sevilla has also generated things” and has “complicated” them, but that they have been “effective”, something that for Xavi is “very important”. “I remember last year, or the day of Rayo, that we were not effective. That the first one between for us is key, it changes the game, we have many rivals who close behind, who want a slow game, it is not the case of Sevilla “, he commented.
The player from Egar recognized that, “in the situation that Sevilla was in, with the need for points and the urgency”, it was very important to be right. “That 0-1 has been soothing, it has settled us in the match and we have been calmer”, he declared. Xavi acknowledged that he tried to “take advantage” of the rival team’s problems through “intensity” and “patience”.
“I had talked about the intensity, to equalize it, because they have emergencies and they were going to come out with tremendous intensity and we had to equalize it. Having a break was very important, playing in the opposite field so that they would get desperate, be patient. We have had it in many moments and in the first minutes we didn’t have it. But there have also been moments in which they have dominated us, and from lateral centers they push a lot”, Xavi deepened.
The Barça coach explained how important it was to “take advantage of the game’s alternatives” because “many times the space is not created and you have to create it”. “In the end, the first goal comes from a transition, which is left to Ousmane (Dembele), the winger comes out and that is what he had told them in the video,” he remarked.
One of the outstanding men was Jules Koundé, who distributed two assists on his return to Seville and whose coach considers that “he has done an extraordinary job, both on the side and as a centre-back”.
Xavi also valued the rest of the “alternatives” he has on the right side, where the Frenchman started today. “Now he has come to Héctor (Bellerín) and there is Sergi (Roberto), who when he has left has done really well in all the games. He is a footballer who performs a lot, who gives us security, who shoots up, who doesn’t he loses the ball, he understands the game, the truth is that Sergi entered very well, I’m satisfied with him”, he assessed.
Finally, he did not forget Robert Lewandowski, whom he praised for his work on and especially off the field. “His leadership is helping us a lot, perhaps what people don’t see, that he helps us in everything, the ‘staff’, the young players, the most veteran, he is a natural leader, he is very positive for the group, that humility with which he has arrived, he is a winner, how he trains, right now it is wonderful to have him on the team”, he concluded.