Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski has once again contradicted Xavi Hernandez’s rhetoric, while answering questions about their Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain. The Blaugrana coach said Barcelona were the better team before Ronald Araujo’s red card and held off PSG, but Lewandowski felt they could not compare to the French champions.
Lewandowski spoke about the 2020 Ballon d’Or, recalling that for many people he would have won the award if it had not been canceled.
“I deserved to win, that’s how I feel. If you win everything with the team, if you score so many very important goals, you can think like that. The decision to cancel it in 2020 was a disappointment, but I don’t want to think about things that are beyond my control,” he told Le Parisien, reported by Cadena SER.
“On the one hand, I am very proud of what I have done, but on the other hand I tell myself that there is still work to be done.”
🚨 Xavi’s relationship with Vitor Roque is cordial. It’s wrong that the coach doesn’t talk to him. Xavi asks the Brazilian to keep showing up in training. @sanantheone
– barcacentre (@barcacentre) May 7, 2024
Regarding their defeat against PSG, Lewandowski explained that the mistakes they made deprived Barcelona of the chance to try to get to that level.
“At this level, when you make these kinds of mistakes and bad decisions, it is very difficult to compare yourself to teams like PSG. If you compare yourself to a team and you lose because the rival was better, you can accept it in another way. But in this match, it’s too difficult to compare when you make mistakes like that at this level.
Lewandowski also praised PSG midfielder Vitinha, while saying Kylian Mbappe looked intelligent to him.
“He’s a very intelligent guy who knows very clearly how he wants to do things. He keeps his feet on the ground. With Kylian, we can talk about many things. If you talk to him, you know he’s a very serious guy, the conversation with him always goes in the right direction. Even though he is young, he already has a lot of knowledge.
This is not the first time the star player has contradicted his manager in public, notably with Ilkay Gundogan demanding more from his teammates during PSG’s defeat and their Clasico loss at Montjuic. One of the concerns before Xavi announced his departure from Barcelona in January was the relationship with the team’s veterans.
