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Xavi fumes as Barcelona fall to ‘undeserved’ Clasico defeat
Xavi expressed his belief that his Barcelona team “deserved” to emerge victorious against Real Madrid on Sunday, attributing their loss to poor referee decisions.
Despite leading twice in the game, Barcelona suffered a 3-2 defeat due to a last-minute goal from Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, who scored his third goal against Barca this season.
The outcome was particularly devastating for Barcelona, with Xavi pointing to two referee decisions that left him deeply frustrated. He criticized the decision to award a penalty for Madrid’s first equalizer and highlighted the controversy surrounding Lamine Yamal’s disallowed goal, which the referees deemed had not entirely crossed the goal line.
Notably, La Liga lacks the goal-line technology present in many top European leagues, relying instead on standard VAR checks with fewer camera angles.
Xavi’s frustration stemmed from what he perceived as unfair treatment from the officials, leaving him feeling aggrieved by the outcome.
“We have to be proud of how we played, especially in the second half,” Xavi said. “We controlled the game well and we deserved to win.
“We did a good job and we deserved the three points, but they escape us due to situations that we cannot control and a failure to stop a clear counter. We could have even recovered the ball in the last transition.
“We deserved more. We were good. We created chances. It’s the story of the first game which set the tone for the season.”
Xavi declined to call out the referees after the game but insisted there was clear evidence that Barca had been wronged.
“Everyone has seen it,” he stressed. “They can sanction me. The images are there.
“I can only analyse the game and we were better than Madrid. We lacked details, but this is part of the transition process we are in. We deserved to win.
“[Madrid] generated very little against us beyond the penalty. The second goal is a defensive error and the third is a transition that we have not stopped. It was a carbon copy of the first round match. If you add six [points] to Barca and subtract it from Madrid, the La Liga title is there.”