Barcelona's Spanish coach Xavi gestures during the UEFA Champions League last 16 second leg football match between FC Barcelona and SSC Napoli at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona on March 12, 2024. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said beating Napoli to reach the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday was one of his finest moments in his post.
The Spanish champions won 3-1 at the Olympic Stadium to seal a 4-2 aggregate win against last year’s Serie A winners, returning to the last eight for the first time since 2020.
“There has been a lot of unfair criticism, (that we were) the joke of the Champions League, we had to play with that pressure,” Xavi told a news conference.
“We had to be better than Napoli and we were, it’s a more than deserved qualification, it’s one of my best moments as Barcelona coach.”
The coach said he would not change his mind about leaving at the end of the season, a decision he took in January. Since then the team have gone nine matches unbeaten.
Centre-back Pau Cubarsi, 17, was given the Player of the Match award and Xavi lavished praise on the young defender, key in recent weeks.
“He’s a very rational kid, he’s got a lot of brains, he’s patient, he’s very humble, he wants to improve,” said Xavi.
“His sudden emergence is wonderful for Barcelona and Spanish football — we’re looking at a top-level defender for years to come.”
Like Xavi, Cubarsi said this was a match to remember. “This has been one of the best days of my life,” Cubarsi told Movistar.
“The team deserves this player of the match trophy, I’m so happy, but we’re a group.”
It must also be made clear to audiences when voices they are hearing are AI…
The pope missed last year's open-air ceremony, which took place shortly after he was released…
The Italian had lost to Medvedev in the Miami final last year but beat him…
The presidential spokesman said he and some other staff of the Presidency call Tinubu “President…
The elder statesman also insisted that there is no way the 1999 Constitution can solve…
He called for strong political will on the part of leaders at all levels to…