Xavi Hernandez has introduced himself as Barcelona’s coach.
Xavi Hernandez’s era began with a victory over Espanyol in the Barcelona derby. However, the Blaugrana team still have a lot to do as they won at home by a small margin thanks to a penalty carried out by Memphis Depay.
Barcelona suffered multiple casualties following an attacking injury and an incident with Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero, but found the only goal at the start of the second half, one of his last cards in the Champions League being played. vs Benfica.
How about Barcelona with Xavi?
In addition to injecting encouragement into the depressed team, Xavi began to restore the team’s style little by little. Ideas that were lost in Ronald Koeman trickle back with solid stakes in the quarry in the absence of offensive elements.
Of the 11 players who started the game, only Ter Stegen, Depay, and de Jong were not made at La Masía. Of the eight local players, three of whom he has “recently graduated”. Gabi, Ilias Acomac and Nico. More home-born players joined the bench in the second half, including Ronald Araujo, Riqui Puig and Abde Ezarzuli.
The result was over 60% possession and constant punching. Xavi’s first version of Barcelona failed to be effective in front of goal as he had 16 shots in 90 minutes, six of which were on target.
Defensively, one of the areas that has hurt Barcelona the most since the Valverde era, even the Luis Enrique area saw a slight improvement, but Barça eventually demanded time and Xavi delivered a surprise. Made defensive changes to avoid. Ter Stegen barely intervened on two of his 12 shots that the parakeet attempted at all costs.
Xavi passed the first test, but it will be the first acid test against Benfica on Tuesday.