Pedri’s brilliant second-half goal was enough to secure all three points for the Catalan club and extend their winning run to six games in the league.
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Barcelona boss Xavi was delighted with his side’s performance in the 1-0 La Liga win over Sevilla at Camp Nou on Sunday. Pedri’s brilliant second-half goal was enough to secure all three points for the Catalan club and extend their winning run to six games in the league. The win helped the Blaugrana to leapfrog Sevilla into second spot in the standings. Xavi’s side are now on 57 points from 29 games, level on points with Sevilla and Atletico Madrid and have a game in hand.
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FULL TIME! #BarçaSevilla pic.twitter.com/HadVhFWLq8
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 3, 2022
It was a dominant performance from Xavi’s side as they created close to 20 chances and registered six shots on goal compared to just three efforts on target from Sevilla. They could have won by a larger margin had it not been for some superb goalkeeping from Yassine Bounou. Meanwhile Sevilla also came into the match on the back of a 15-match unbeaten run. That’s the club’s best unbeaten run in top-flight football.
”I am a positive person, I believe in work, effort, sacrifice and collective work. We are very good, we are supportive, everyone runs and presses. With this base the results have to come. We are in the best moment of the season,” Xavi said.
“Today we dominated a super team, the best in the league defensively. We won 1-0 and it could have been more. Perhaps we failed to make decisions, we should have scored earlier. It’s a six-point win.”
Barcelona played an exciting brand of football and created good number of goal-scoring chances. Ousmane Dembele, who started the match ahead of Adama Traore was a lively figure down the right flank and through set-piece situations. The Frenchman created chances for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres, Ronald Araujo and Gerard Pique.
“During the break we talked about the last pass missing, decision-making. It’s what we practice the most in training. Pedri’s goal is a pass from Ousmane behind. In the end It was about finding solutions to this defensive framework of Sevilla,” the Spanish tactician said.
A moment of individual brilliance was needed to break the deadlock. 19-year-old pedri received the ball from Dembele outside the box, went past an onrushing Ivan Rakitic and played a nice little Dummy to dispossess Diego Carlos before putting the ball into the bottom corner on 72 minutes.
“I encourage him [Pedri] to shoot. He always has the pass in his head, the next pass, the last pass, he’s a passer. It’s something that happened to me as well. But he can shoot, today he scored a great goal.”
Xavi’s side now turn their attentions away from La Liga and to the Europa League. Barca are in Germany on Thursday night for the first leg of their quarter-final tie with Eintracht Frankfurt.
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