Xavi unhappy with Gerard Pique’s ‘clear mistake’ against Inter

Xavi has admitted being unhappy with his defence and the ‘clear mistake’ made by Gerard Pique in Barcelona’s 3-3 draw with Inter.

After losing their first matches to Bayern and Inter, Barcelona really needed to beat the Italian side at Camp Nou to keep their chances of making it to the Champions League knockout rounds alive.

They made the ideal start, taking the lead after 40 minutes, but were pegged back at the start of the second half when Pique let a cross go past him, not aware that Nicolo Barella was behind him, allowing the Italian to steal in and score.

Inter took the lead twice after that but on both occasions Robert Lewandowski equalised. However, he and his teammates couldn’t find a winner and now look set to finish third in their group.

Speaking after the match, Xavi didn’t hold back when asked about the defensive mishap made by his former team-mate.

“It was too many mistakes,” he said. “Their first goal was a clear mistake by our defence, we let them have too many chances. Football is a game of mistakes and we can’t afford those in situations like this.

“This is the Champions League and you pay a high price for each error you make. You need to win, to defend well, to score. We needed to play the entire game like we did in the first half.”

The manager admits it’ll be difficult to progress in the competition now and has called on his team to focus on La Liga instead.

“It’s bad, I think this Champions League is being very cruel to us,” he added.

“Now it is out of our hands. What is left for us is to turn our attention quickly to Sunday’s El Clasico, bounce back and focus on La Liga because the Champions League became very difficult and complicated for us.”