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Monday 004 La Liga Round 33
[3] Barcelona VS Valencia[8]
Time: 03:00, April 30
Barcelona
Xavi's announcement of his stay in office is quite noteworthy, in the context of the national derby loss to Real Madrid, completely missing the league title, it is logical that the Champions League was eliminated in a good situation, and then lost the most important league, and suffered important blows in a row, which is not suitable for such an important news. When Barcelona performed well before, Xavi has always said that the decision to leave the team at the end of the season will not change for the time being. It can be assumed that it should be the result of the persuasion of the club's top management, including president Joan Laporta and director Deco, and it is by no means the result of Xavi's wishful thinking.
▲After Barcelona experienced 10 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses in the last 15 games in all competitions, the team's top management successfully persuaded Xavi to stay in office and achieved a win-win-win result
There are many reasons why the Barcelona hierarchy tried to keep Xavi, although La Liga failed to defend the title, but won the Spanish Super Cup at the beginning of the season and returned to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, which gave the club some economic relief. On top of that, in the national derby, Barcelona showed at least a level of competition with Real Madrid in a single game, which gave the club hope for the future. Moreover, during Xavi's tenure, many young players such as Yamal and Kubasi have grown tremendously, the value of youth training has been fully reflected, and it is also an increase in the intangible assets of the club.
For various reasons, Xavi reversed his decision and announced that next season would continue, which was a win-win for both parties. Barcelona's economic situation does not allow a high-priced coach, and it has to make a big move, and it can't afford to toss. You must know that Xavi came to terminate the contract out of his own pocket at that time, and his feelings for Barcelona, his understanding of the players, and his cooperation with the operation of the club are far stronger than those of outsiders. Of course, Laporta probably still promised something, especially the strengthening of the squad next season. For the time being, there are two new coaches, fitness coach Julio Tus and physiotherapist Raul Martinez, the former focusing on the strength of the players, and the latter of course injuries, which can be regarded as the right treatment for this season's problems.
In his pre-match press conference, Xavi stressed that the team is training well and that they are united at the moment, while pointing out that Barcelona still have one goal to achieve in the league, which is to finish second in the league. Having not reached the Copa del Rey final, Barcelona can now only hope to finish runners-up in the league and qualify for next year's Spanish Super Cup, which is crucial for the club, both financially and in terms of team image, which can be said to be a hard indicator. Now Barcelona is one point behind Girona with one game less, and the next round is away to Girona, and three points in this game can overtake the opponent and occupy a more advantageous position in the subsequent direct dialogue.
▲Valencia are Barca's top scorer in La Liga (335 goals), while the Bats have failed to score in only two of their previous 17 league games against Barcelona.
Valencia have exceeded expectations overall this season and are now eighth in the league, just three points clear of Real Sociedad in the European divisions, although a 2-1 home defeat to direct rivals Real Betis in the last round put them at a relative disadvantage in the competition. Valencia's best performance this season has been defence, conceding only more goals than Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, especially at home until the last round to reach double figures, of course, away goals conceded more than twice as many as at home, which is much worse.
The two teams are close to each other tonight, De Jong on Barcelona's side is injured and said goodbye to the season early, Gavi and Balde are both old injuries, and Pedri is recovering from injury. Valencia also have two defenders, Diacabi and Gaya.
Xavi's retention is a shot in the arm for Barca, avoiding the potential danger of an end-of-season collapse like Liverpool's, restoring cohesion and having a clear purpose. One of Barcelona's big problems this season is that there are a lot of small wins, but now there is no baggage to play, and Valencia, despite the improvement of the defense, is not easy to defend against Barcelona in a relatively mediocre away game, with a score of 2-0.