Barcelona equalised through Pedri’s solo goal before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted the winner early in the second half.
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Barcelona boss Xavi was delighted with his side’s performance in the 2-1 win over Galatasaray in Istanbul on Thursday. The result helped the Blaugrana to go through to the quarter-finals of Europa League after the first leg at Camp Nou had ended goalless. Galatasaray scored the first goal of the tie on 27 minutes, when Maracao headed home from a corner kick. Barcelona equalised through Pedri’s solo goal before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted the winner early in the second half.
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Xavi’s side displayed a great passing-game to get the better of the Turkish giants. The passing was much quicker compared to the home leg and one such team move on 37 minutes led to the equaliser.
Torres collected the ball from De Jong and played a nice little through ball for Pedri inside the box, the Spaniard dodged and shimmed his way through a minefield of Galatasaray defenders before slotting home past Inaki Pena into the back of the net.
And then, Aubameyang scored the winner on 49 minutes. Ianki Pena made a brilliant double-save to deny Busquets and Pedri but the ball eventually fell to Aubameyang in front of goal, and the Gabon international made no mistake as he put the ball inside the net.
Xavi offered his thoughts after the match and spoke about his pride in the character his players showed to come from behind to win. The coach said: “We played a match of huge personality. It was a great performance to fight back in a ground like this against a very good team. They knew how to defend against us but we were patient. I’m very happy for my players.
“Today was important. It is a European competition and we want to go far. And you could say that we are in a good place [ahead of El Clasico]. But that means nothing, I have seen that many times before. It will be very difficult. It will be tough.”
