Despite the 0-2 win in the first leg, Xavi insisted the team won’t “ come out and sit back and defend the lead– we always attack, we don’t know any other way to play and our fans would never let us”.
Missed out on Wembley’92
This year’s Champions League Final is being held at Wembley of course and Xavi explained that
he’d missed Barça’s last final there in 1992 (when he was 12): “I wasn’t
allowed to go, but my brothers were there. It’d be great to go back to where the Club won
their first Champions League and having beaten a historic rival like Madrid”.
Nearly a week has passed since the third meeting between the Big Two and as Xavi pointed out with
regret this evening at the pre-match press conference, there’s been lots of talk about almost
everything but football since then.
“We have a good first leg result”
Xavi has been a Barça fan since he was a child and facing the eternal ribvals
Madrid always brings an extra spark of motivation, He also admitted it was “a pleasure and a
great satisfaction to be here enjoying this” and that “we have a good result from the
first leg”, as he aims for his third Champiosn League Final.
Barça true to their style of play
The Nou Camp may see different tactics from Real Madrid to those they employed last
week, as Xavi commented: “the result makes that necessary – they’ll need to go
out and look for the game more. They’ve lived on a counter attacking game and been ultra
defensive, but we have to be prepared for them to play higher up the pitch tomorrow”.
Whatever happens though, Barça will stay true to their own way of playing: “our game
won’t change at all”, the Spanish midfielder insisted, “we always attack and
never try and sit back and defend a lead - we don’t know any other way to play and our fans
would never let us”.
Off the field incidents
There’s been no end of controversy after last week’s game,
but Xavi, a footballer through and through, revealed: “It saddens me to have to talk about
things that are nothing to do with the sport. It’s not for me to judge the behaviour of
Madrid’s manager, but in the end, you win because you deserve it, because you have done more
good things. All these official complaints just get nowhere. We try and just talk about football
and not those lamentable incidents”.
Exemplary behaviour
One thing Xavi is clear about though: “our behaviour has been exemplary. It
has been in all the games we’ve played and all this business seems pathetic and
deplorable”.