- Barcelona is defeated in midweek by Shakhtar Donesk, the Champions League.
- After taking the lead early through Ilkay Gundogan, Real Madrid lost to their rivals in Clasico.
- Ter Stegen says Barca is angry about recent performance
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen admitted that he “cannot explain” Barcelona’s poor performance in recent weeks.
On Tuesday night, the Catalan giants were surprised by a 1-0 loss to Shakhtar in the Champions League. Danylo Sikan scored the only goal for the Ukrainian champions.
Barcelona’s performance Tuesday was perhaps more shocking than the actual result. Despite having 68% of the ball, Xavi Hernández’s team had only one shot in the last third.
In fact, Barcelona has been unable to generate chances in recent games. This has lead star striker Robert Lewandowski’s biggest goal in 12 year. The Pole hasn’t had a single shot at target in any of the last six matches.
The team’s performance was similar to that of Xavi, who described it as “totally unacceptable”, against Real Sociedad a few days earlier. They were outplayed and only won 1-0 thanks to Ronald Araujo’s late goal. Ter Stegen and his teammates are confused by their recent drop in form.
A bad defeat / Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto/GettyImages
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“We’ve had two bad games. We played well in the Clasico until 60 minutes. “We went a bit down, but I don’t know why. We will analyse today’s game [Tuesday]. We look forward. We will play one last game before the break and try our best to win.
We will analyze the game today [Tuesday]. We look forward. We will play one last game before the break and try our best to win.
We are furious with ourselves. We cannot let this happen. We couldn’t get the right formula. They had a good chance to win in the first-half. “We are left feeling like we lost a match that was important to us to advance to the next stage of the Champions League.”
Xavi said that Barca’s problems are “mental” in his press conference after the match. He will be hoping things improve when Alaves arrive at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium.
