Xavi reveals impressive stat as Barcelona plan 2022/23 title challenge
When stats are brought up in press conferences, it’s usually as part of the question and not the answer, but Xavi revealed an eyebrow-raising stat during his talk with the media following Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Real Betis on Saturday night. The Catalan coach explained that his Barça side have managed to defeat each of the other nine teams currently inside the top 10 of LaLiga Santander since he took over.
He said: “We have a winning mentality and a competitive gene, and we’ve defeated each of the top 10 sides in the second half of this season. That’s proof that we can play better. We need to analyse this, but it shows we’ve put in a titanic amount of effort since November. We’re now qualified for the Champions League and want to finish in second place.”
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Barcelona’s results against the top 10 teams in LaLiga Santander
The results Xavi was referring to were: 4-0 away win vs first-placed Real Madrid, 1-0 home win vs third-placed Sevilla, 4-2 home win vs fourth-placed Atletico Madrid, 2-1 away win vs fifth-placed Real Betis, 1-0 away win vs sixth-placed Real Sociedad, 4-0 home win vs seventh-placed Athletic Club, 3-1 away win vs eighth-placed Villarreal, 4-0 home win vs ninth-placed Osasuna and 4-1 away win vs 10th-placed Valencia.
That is impressive and shows that Barça are more than capable of taking points off their direct rivals, even on the road.
Barcelona were ninth when Xavi took over, they have now clinched a spot in next season's Champions League group stage 🌟 pic.twitter.com/oKTeryPdc3
— B/R Football (@brfootball) May 7, 2022
Barcelona’s struggles against weaker teams
The problem for Barcelona has been when they’ve faced weaker opponents, those that park the bus and hope for a draw or to nick a goal on the counter. That’s what happened as they suffered back-to-back home league defeats to Cadiz and Rayo Vallecano in April.
Even though they’ve defeated each of the current bottom three – Real Mallorca, Levante and Alaves – under Xavi, each of those wins was by just one goal.
This is what Barcelona need to solve if they are to mount a serious title challenge in 2022/23, as Real Madrid know how to rack up the goals and wins against weaker opposition. But, Xavi’s stat is still encouraging, as Barcelona now know they can take points off the best.
