Barça coach Xavi admits LaLiga title is "almost there, this is a giant step"
Alba's late winner over Osasuna brought Barça close to the league title
Xavi Hernández was liberated by Jordi Alba's late goal. He celebrated by jumping up and down and hugging his players and assistants on the bench. Despite playing many minutes with an extra man and completely controlling the game against Osasuna, a goal resisted Barcelona almost until the end of regulation time.
And the Blaugrana coach considered the match against the Navarran side to be key in order to leave, now, the league title almost sentenced. For the first time in a long time, he recognised that the objective is now within reach.
"It's almost there," Xavi said. "The feeling is that these six points (Betis and Osasuna) were key after the defeat in Vallecas. We're going to wait and see, but it's a giant step forward."
He regretted, though, having suffered so much against an Osasuna side who came to the Spotify Camp Nou to compete but without their many first-choice players with Saturday's Copa del Rey final against Madrid in mind.
"We suffered too much," he added. "We missed some very clear chances, the kind where you can just push it in. And then came Jordi's goal, which sometimes makes it better to win like that."
Xavi believes that the lack of effectiveness shown against Osasuna has been one of the team's problems this season and one of the explanations for having won eleven games 1-0.
"It's the tone of the season, we've lacked effectiveness," he said. "It's a summary of the season, in which we've created a lot of chances but we haven't put them away. But we played with hunger and I think we deserved the win."
The coach justified the early substitutions due to Raphinha's injury: "We had planned for Christensen and Raphinha to continue a bit longer but it was accelerated because Rafa told me that he had a problem and to bring on someone else."
On Gavi's substitution, he took advantage of the fact that he was also not at 100 percent to make an offensive change by bringing on Ansu Fati.
"Gavi also had some discomfort and I took advantage of it to go more on the attack. He told me that it was bothering him when passing and shooting and, as we needed it, we went on the attack," he said.
