On Sunday morning (28th), Barcelona experienced a dramatic 3-5 defeat at home in La Liga against Villarreal. This is not the first time that Barcelona suffered a Waterloo, their exit from the Copa del Rey a few days ago has given them a bitter taste, and now they are 10 points behind Real Madrid at the top of the table, making the road to defending their title out of reach. Coach Xavi, who is under tremendous pressure, publicly announced after the match that he will step down at the end of the season, describing his experience as Barcelona's coach as "cruel".
Barcelona's defense was riddled with holes in this match, and they fell behind 2-0 in the first half with two goals scored by Sheraton Moranu and Igor Magee. However, they mounted a comeback, with goals from Gundogan, Birdie and Alex Bailly putting the team back in front 3-2. But the drama didn't end there, as Giancarlo Guiadis equalized in the 84th minute, and the Yellow Submarine scored in the last 9 and 12 minutes of extra time with goals from Aleksandar Solov and José Morales to pull off a dramatic 5-3 comeback victory over Barcelona.
Recently, Barcelona's form has been in the doldrums. Earlier this month, they lost 1-4 to Real Madrid in the La Liga final, and a few days ago, they lost 2-4 to Bilbao in the La Liga Cup, and in this match, they were once again attacked by Villarreal and scored 5 goals. According to Opta data, this is the first time Barcelona has been bombarded with 5 goals or more by opponents at home in La Liga since 1963 when they lost 1-5 at home to Real Madrid, which is undoubtedly a humiliating defeat.
Faced with a string of defeats, Xavi revealed in the post-match press conference, "Before you ask your questions, I would like to announce that as of June 30th I will no longer be the coach of Barcelona. This is a decision I made after discussing with the club. As a Barcelona fan, I know that the club needs to change, the atmosphere in the team is very tense now, and I think that this decision may be able to liberate some of the players. Before I leave, I will give my best and I think this is the right decision."
