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Xavi believes Barcelona should have closed out the Valencia game before Araujo red card
Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has bemoaned having to defend his side’s one-goal lead against Valencia in their 1-0 win in LaLiga today.
Barcelona had to dig deep to produce yet another dogged defensive display against Valencia after getting reduced to 10 men following Ronaldo Araujo’s 60th-minute red card.
Xavi critical of Barcelona team
Barcelona also suffered a missed penalty as Ferran Torres was denied by the post from the spot. The penalty would have eased the tensions in the last few minutes of the tie, but Torres’ miss meant that the Blaugrana were under the cosh again after having to put up a similar ordeal against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey.
Xavi was critical of his team's performance against Valencia, saying that the team suffered more than they needed to in order to secure all three points against Valencia.
Speaking to Movistar Plus after the Valencia game, Xavi said, "We have suffered too much today. We have defended well [after the red card] but we should have scored the second before that.”
Xavi wants Barcelona to close out games more often
While he blamed his team's having to defend for large periods against Real Madrid on Los Blancos’ quality, Xavi believes the display against Valencia was entirely down to Barcelona not doing the right things.
Xavi critiqued his team, saying, "We have close games like this and we didn't do it today due to the lack of effectiveness, which meant we had to suffer until the end. It's a growing experience."
Barcelona had to withstand a lot of pressure at home against Valencia for 30 minutes plus extra time and came out of the experience with yet another clean sheet, their 18th of the season.
Their astounding defensive effort was accentuated by the fact that Valencia were unable to muster more than one shot on target which came in the 95th minute of the tie.
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