Hosts Osasuna managed to equalize twice and eventually tie 2-2 with Barcelona at the El Sadar Stadium on Sunday. But this La Liga fixture was also notable because Barcelona’s Nico Gonzalez and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli scored their first career goals. And after with covered this match yesterday in football today, Xavi Hernandez explains his young Barcelona line-up away at Osasuna.
Football Today – Xavi Hernandez Explains His Young Barcelona Line-up
Gonzalez’s and Ezzalzouli’s goals mark the first time in this century that Barca have had two different players under the age of 20 who have scored goals in the same La Liga season.
“I think that’s the positive and the negative,” Barca coach Xavi Hernandez said after the game of his young goalscorers.
“The players making the difference at Barcelona now are 17, 18 and 19. Positive for the future but also a negative. Such young players won’t always perform excellently. We need time, patience. Gavi, Nico were spectacular. But they don’t want to be the spine of the team.
“We’re adrift [of the top four] and the more points we can make up in the coming weeks, the better. We competed today, but the result was a huge shame.”
After this 2-2 draw, however, Xavi also said the club needed “a reset,” to create a new Barca.
“We are in a negative spiral and we need to find a way to break it,” the Barca coach added. “This draw is not enough. When we scored the second goal we should have taken control but we didn’t and that made us suffer.”
Gerard Pique also said that the club “urgently” needed a win to get their season started.
“Like Xavi said [after the defeat to Bayern on Wednesday], a new era is starting and it’s vital we start picking up points in La Liga,” Pique told Movistar.
