Just defending is not Barcelona’s ideology, Xavi has said in the past. That’s not how we want to play, he said after winning El Clásico

Barcelona is not just about football, the whole club has presented itself in the last decade that football is an art and the players and fans must also play beautiful football, not just win. It’s just that in El Clásico, Xavi parked the bus like Diego Simeone in his most glorious era.

In Xavi’s defence, it has to be said that he didn’t have three key players at his disposal. Robert Lewandowski, Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé were missing due to injury.

Even so, Barcelona were not expected to arrive at the Santiago Bernabéu in the Copa del Rey semi-final with such defensive tactics. In the first 20 minutes, the Blaugranas practically didn’t get more coherent possession of the ball and more or less didn’t visit the opponents’ half with the ball on their kicks.

However, in the 26th minute, after a mistake by Camavinga, they got on the break, Kessié hit Courtois, from whom the ball deflected to Militao and into the net. From that point on, Real were in shock and the game was a bit more even by half-time.

But in the second half, Barcelona came just to take away the 1: 0 result. Real Madrid practically pinned their rivals to the whitewash, possession was 70%-30% and shots were 13-4 overall.

Barcelona resembled the parked bus that José Mourinho or Diego Simeone were famous for in their prime. But fans immediately remembered that Xavi had denied in the past that Barcelona should play like this.

“In a big team like Barcelona or Real Madrid, for me, the style of play should be undeniable, that is, in my opinion, you cannot play like Atlético Madrid,” Xavi said in 2016, referring to Simeone.

“It would not be Barça’s style. I don’t think the fans and those around them would understand that kind of Barça game. It doesn’t fit together. I’m not saying it’s not justified and that it’s competitive and wins titles. But it’s not our idea. They wouldn’t understand if we were locked in at the back in a low block with eleven players in the box,” the Barcelona coach added.

But after winning Thursday’s El Clásico in just that fashion, his words came back to Xavi like a boomerang.

“Today we can’t brag about how. This is not the style we want to play. We want to create more scoring chances. It’s not the game we want to play. There are moments when your opponent can dominate you. How do you take the ball away from Kroos and Modric? That has to be appreciated and it’s extraordinary,” Xavi explained.

Source: MARCA