Xavi Hernandez Blames Grass After FC Barcelona Bore Draw With Getafe Breaks Unwanted Records

FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez has attempted to blame the turf for his side’s 0-0 draw with Getafe on Sunday, which broke unwanted records for his club.

After Easter Monday’s goalless stalemate at home to Girona, an identical score this weekend in Madrid meant that Barca put up back to back scoreless draws for the first time in 18 years in La Liga.

Considering last week’s 4-0 second leg thrashing to Real Madrid too, which knocked Barca out of the Copa del Rey semi-finals, this is also the Catalans’ worst run of scoreless games since April 2008 when Xavi played under a doomed Frank Rijkaard fired the following month by current president Joan Laporta to be replaced by Pep Guardiola.

Back in April 2023, match MVP Raphinha and Alejandro Balde both hit the post on the same move in the first half this afternoon.

Other than that, however, there wasn’t much to write home about with Xavi using the turf at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez as an excuse post-match despite protesting that he wasn’t.

“Yesterday we already trained with a dry pitch in Barcelona, it hurt us, it’s bad for the spectacle and also for Getafe because on a couple of [Getafe player] Munir’s counters he didn’t even shoot the ball…,” Xavi offered to local broadcaster DAZN Espana. “The grass is no excuse because we haven’t played well.”

“We have to improve our feelings and play ahead of the final stretch, [because] nothing has been decided in the League yet,” Xavi added, with Barca failing to take a chance to extend their points lead to 13 over bitter rivals Real Madrid at the summit.

This follows Barca fluffing their lines against Girona at the start of the week and not capitalizing on an opportunity to put 15 points between themselves and their bitter rivals who lost to Villarreal at home on the previous Saturday.

Next up for Barca is Atletico Madrid, who are arguably La Liga’s best in-form team at the moment and are also notorious for keeping clean sheets at a time when Xavi’s men are struggling to hit the back of the net.