Tag: Xavi

Barcelona’s legend Xavi stated that he is extremely happy that the club managed to seal qualification to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after the 4-1 aggregate win over Manchester City. This was seen as a tough match for the club given that City have spent huge amounts of money in improving the squad. As a result, they possess the likes of Yaya Touré and Sergio Aguero. They are also competing for the Premier league title, which is one of the toughest in the world.

Even though Barcelona managed a comfortable 2-0 win in the first leg thanks to goals from Lionel Messi and Dani Alves, there was always the possibility of a comeback from City in the second leg. This was because of City’s attacking prowess this campaign, which is on course to making them the leading goal scorer in Premier league history with more than 103 goals. As in the first leg, Messi opened the scoring in the second half. Defender Alves got the second for Barcelona before Pablo Zabaleta was sent off for City late on in the encounter.

Xavi said after the match that he is happy that Barcelona have shown their strength against one of the top teams, but feels that tougher tests await the club in the quarter-finals.

“There were moments tonight when we were really flying. This is a competition which makes us very proud and people should be happy we are in the quarter-finals once again after a really intelligent performance. In fact we’ve produced a great knockout performance against a great rival like City. Despite the 2-0 first-leg score, this was a really open tie and I think the public must have seen a pretty great spectacle,” said the midfielder, who has been widely linked with a move to MLS in the summer.

Xavi Hernandez has been playing with Barcelona for over 14 seasons and for the longest of years, he has been the dictator of the midfield for his club. Even at his 34 years of age, he is still considered to be one of the best players who plays as a central-midfielder.

A dead ball specialist at the same caliber as Italy’s Andrea Pirlo, Xavi still has a few more years left in him before hanging up his boots. David Beckham wants Xavi Hernandez to be his 1^st signing for his MLS franchise.

The Spanish midfielder has a contract with Barcelona which expires in 2016 and the Miami franchise of Beckham is expected to be in the league in 2017 so if everything goes according to plans, Xavi would have no problem in leaving Barcelona when his contract ends and play for the last few years of his career in the MLS.

Xavi has been a consistent performer for Barcelona since 1999 and his world class passing is something that Beckham wants to bring to his Miami based franchise. If Xavi does decide to make a move to the MLS, it would not be a very surprising thing as a lot of veteran players are opting on switching to play the last few years of their career on a place where the pressure is not as big as their former clubs.

Some months ago Xavi was also being linked with New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls and while he still has not said anything regarding his future outside of Barcelona, it is highly likely that he might join a club outside of La Liga when his contract does reach its end.

Xavi was absent during Barcelona’s latest La Liga match as they overcame Getafe with a comfortable 5-2 final scoreboard. According to the medical staff of the team Xavi picked up an injury on his right leg and the head coach Tata Martino decided to give him a day off and rest him for their match against Getafe.

Leg injuries are nothing new for the Spanish midfielder as he already had suffered from a hamstring injury on his left leg back in November and had to miss 1 week of action for Barcelona, which was nothing too serious and now it is believed that he will be back in action by their next match against Elche and he was only rested for Getafe’s match as a precaution.

It’s no secret that for Barcelona, Xavi Hernandez is probably one of the more influential players on the pitch considering their playing style that relies on quick and short passes being spread around between all the players on the field and it has been long considered that Xavi has unrivaled passing efficiency even compared to Italy’s Andrea Pirlo.

Despite having some of their star players out injured, Barcelona have managed to cope with the absence of Valdes, Messi and Xavi accordingly as they continue on winning their respective matches and claiming points that maintain them at the top of the Spanish League with 46 points and having only suffered 1 loss so far in the season.

When the Spanish midfielder was asked about the Ballon d’Or he went on talking about the hard work that Franck Ribery and Cristiano Ronaldo have done to claim the award but had special praise to his teammate Lionel Messi as he considers the Argentine not only the best player in the world but the best player in history according to him.

“Cristiano Ronaldo and Ribéry have both done a lot to deserve the Ballon d’Or, but for me the best player in the world, and already the best ever, is Messi, without a shadow of doubt”. He was not eligible to vote for the award, but was convinced who he’d have voted for if he could.

Xavi has said that he hopes his team Barcelona recovers well from the defeat against the Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam.

In their previous Champions League game against Ajax, Barcelona suffered a 1-2 defeat. That was an away game for them, but, the kind of form they had been in, one had expected them to secure 3 points, but, a determined Ajax team stunned them.

The victory of Ajax was even more remarkable because of the fact that they played with only 10 guys for a large part of the game as one of their main players Joel Veltman had been shown red card in the 48^th minute.

Talking to the reporters on Thursday about that game against Ajax, Xavi said, “It was the first game that we lost this season and I am hoping that it doesn’t have adverse effects on us.”

“We still have to play a match against Celtic and we will be playing that match on our home ground. So, I reckon we are still the favourites to finish first in our group.”

When asked if getting trailed by a couple of goals put his team under huge amount of pressure, Xavi said, “Yes, it did. It’s never easy to bounce back after getting down by two goals. I think there was lack of intensity in our game that day. Yes, we did raise our game a bit in the latter half, but, they had already done enough damage before that.”

Despite that defeat against Ajax, Barcelona didn’t move down in the Group H points table. They are still at the first position with 10 points in 5 games.

Barcelona’s next game is a La Liga encounter against Athletic Bilbao. That game will be played at San Mames on Sunday.