Xavi admitted that Barcelona can “practically say goodbye” to the Liga title after their surprise loss to Cadiz, which he has described as “not acceptable”.
Barca followed up their Europa League quarter-final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt with another disappointing showing against relegation-threatened Cadiz, who earned a 1-0 win at Camp Nou on Monday thanks to a 48th-minute effort from Lucas Perez.
Xavi’s side are now 15 points behind league leaders Real Madrid and, although they still have a game in hand, the Spaniard has conceded that the trophy is now essentially out of their reach.
What has Xavi said on Barca’s title chances?
The Barca boss believes they have improved significantly as a team over the past few months, but also insists that more “desire” must be shown for them to reach the next level.
“We are angry. We have lost a very good opportunity, a golden one, to differentiate ourselves from the Champions League teams and we are practically saying goodbye to the league,” Xavi told reporters post-match.
“I am angry. We have to play with more determination. We have to do more things. We have trained for this. I am the most responsible. We should have shown more enthusiasm.
“Nobody does what [Ousmane] Dembele generates. We have improved. But we wanted to do more things and fight for titles. We all have to improve, and look each other in the face.
“We have to have more desire, it’s not acceptable losing against Cadiz. There are seven finals left. Today we haven’t played like it was a final. At home we have to show more desire and more character.”
Work still to be done for the ‘great Barca’ to return
Barca appeared to have turned a corner after thrashing Madrid 4-0 at Santiago Bernabeu on March 20, but have only won two of their next five fixtures across all competitions.
The Catalan outfit are not yet guaranteed a top-four finish in La Liga, and Xavi has warned that they will need to cut out recent mistakes in order to secure a place in the Champions League for 2022-23.
“When you win 4-0 in the Bernabeu, it’s logical that you would’ve said we’re back but now we are committing errors too,” he added. “We have to be self-critical and we should react in order to achieve the objective of qualifying for the Champions League.
“We need to work so that the great Barca can return. We beat Madrid and Sevilla with the same team and the same staff. Cadiz were extraordinary and we should improve in terms of values and football. If we have done it once, we can do it again.”
