{"id":21767,"date":"2024-01-25T11:10:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T08:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/21767\/barcelona-on-verge-of-big\/"},"modified":"2024-01-25T11:10:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T08:10:45","slug":"barcelona-on-verge-of-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=21767","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona on verge of big things with or without me &#8211; Xavi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona on verge of big things with or without me &#8211; Xavi\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li>\n<p>Sam Marsden<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Moses Llorens<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"timestamp \">January 25, 2024, 01:01<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Barcelona coach Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez says the club has a bright future with or without him at the helm following Wednesday&#39;s 4-2 Copa del Rey quarter-final defeat to Athletic Club.<\/p>\n<p>The defeat at San Mam\u00e9s came just 10 days after Barca were beaten 4-1 by Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup final, leaving their title hopes this season resting on La Liga and the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, despite his disappointment with the result, Xavi was proud of the team&#39;s youngsters, with teenagers Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubars\u00ed, Hector Fort and Marc Guiu all present in Bilbao.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll coaches of big clubs depend on trophies, but I am proud of the way we faced a great team until the end, especially the young ones,\u201d Xavi said in his post-match press conference .<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#39;re playing with kids. The team is small. That&#39;s what I mean when I say we&#39;re under construction. I think this is the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/start\/\"   title=\"start\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">start<\/a> of something big. Whether I&#39;m here or not , Bar\u00e7a has a great future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a very good project, not from the point of view of me as a coach, but of a very good generation that is coming. Cubars\u00ed, Fort, Lamine, Guiu and many other players&#8230; Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez .<\/p>\n<p>I think it&#39;s the start of something big, but we have to work hard and we have to <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a>. It&#39;s about winning at Barca.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Barca hit back just 36 seconds after Gorka Guruzeta&#39;s goal \u2013 the third they have conceded in a minute this season \u2013 to lead at the break thanks to strikes from Robert Lewandowski and Yamal.<\/p>\n<p>Oihan Sancet headed Athletic in the second half to take the match into extra time, but not before Yamal missed two big openings to earn Barca a draw.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#39;m disappointed that I didn&#39;t take a risk at 2-2, but there&#39;s nothing to blame the kid for,&#8221; Xavi added.  \u201cHe\u2019s a 16-year-old who plays wonderfully. He generates [the chances] himself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I\u00f1aki Williams, who returns from the African Cup of Nations [AFCON] playing, and his brother, Nico, then both scored in the extra 30 minutes to seal the victory for Athletic.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Barca manager Xavi reacts to his side&#39;s Copa del Rey defeat to Athletic Club. <cite>Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Barca must now focus on La Liga, where they are eight points behind leaders Girona, and the Champions League, with a round of 16 tie against Napoli in February, increasing the pressure on Xavi to be performing well in these competitions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we don&#39;t compete at the end of the season, I will have to leave,&#8221; he said, reiterating a stance he had taken in recent weeks as criticism mounted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But that doesn&#39;t just apply to me, it applies to all coaches. It&#39;s a big club. It&#39;s Barca. I know where I am and the demands that exist. We have to win trophies &#8211; or at least compete to get them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tonight we competed. We fought and gave everything, but against a very good team. Athletic deserved it. Congratulations to them, that&#39;s <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/football\/\"   title=\"football\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">football<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will try to turn things around in La Liga and go far in the Champions League. But I know how it works, when you lose, the coach is blamed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Match winner Williams was initially not expected to be available for this match, but the Ghana international returned from Ivory Coast following his country&#39;s surprise elimination from AFCON on Monday to take his place on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>He came on as a substitute in the second half and scored the decisive third goal early in extra time, heading home after his first shot hit the inside of the post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t imagine this in my wildest dreams,\u201d he told reporters.  \u201cEverything went perfectly. [On Tuesday]I couldn&#39;t even imagine being here after a really big blow with Ghana, let alone playing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have to thank Athletic for everything they did to get me back. It was a party from start to finish tonight and the match ended in the best possible way. I think we deserved to win it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everything happened so fast. It was a long trip and I didn&#39;t even have time to rest, but I wanted to be here. Even if I wasn&#39;t playing, I wanted to be here to help the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are the evenings that everyone at Athletic wants to attend. We dream of winning the Copa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Athletic will enter Friday&#39;s semi-final draw with Real Sociedad, Mallorca and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid or Sevilla, who meet in the quarter-finals on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Barca, meanwhile, turn their attention to La Liga, with back-to-back home games next <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/week\/\"   title=\"week\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">week<\/a> against Villarreal and Osasuna.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona on verge of big things with or without me &#8211; Xavi\u060c Sam Marsden Moses Llorens January 25, 2024, 01:01 Barcelona coach Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez says the club has a bright future with or without him at the helm following Wednesday&#39;s 4-2 Copa del Rey quarter-final defeat to Athletic Club. The defeat at San Mam\u00e9s came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1442,698,8759,3927],"class_list":["post-21767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-barcelona","tag-big","tag-verge","tag-xavi"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21769,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21767\/revisions\/21769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}