La Liga: Xavi urges Barcelona to improve, despite debut win
Xavi Hernandez was happy to win his first game as Barcelona coach but says his side must improve in attack after a 1-0 win in Saturday’s Catalan derby against Espanyol.
Memphis Depay scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in the second half at Camp Nou as Barca ended a four-game winless streak in LaLiga to climb to sixth in the table.
Just over 74,000 fans attended the game, double the amount that attended Barca’s last home game against Alaves, but they almost witnessed a sting in the tale as Espanyol missed a flurry of late chances.
“In general, I was happy with the performance and the three points,” Xavi, who replaced Ronald Koeman earlier this month, said in his post-game news conference.
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“The attitude and the effort were very good. We dominated for 75 minutes but from there Espanyol created a lot of problems. We had some luck with the woodwork twice.
“It’s difficult to attack a back five with a line of four in front of them, but we have to work on that because we will come up against it many times.
“We need to take more risks going forward but that comes with confidence and time. We need to know when to go wide and when to come inside and we need to work on our timing. I’m happy but there’s a lot to improve.”