"This is the goal" - Xavi claims Barcelona will 'fight till the end' for the league after their 2-1 win over Las Palmas
Xavi Hernandez has said that Barcelona will continue fighting for the title after their latest LaLiga win over UD Las Palmas on Thursday (4 January).
Before the game, the Catalan giants trailed league leaders Real Madrid by 10 points. Las Palmas started the game in brilliant fashion, taking the lead in the 12th minute through former Barca striker Munir El Haddadi.
El Haddadi had the simple task of turning in a sublime low cross from another former Barcelona forward, Sandro Ramirez. The scoreline stayed the same until the 55th minute when Ferran Torres equalized with a low shot inside the box after Las Palmas failed to clear the ball.
The next goal did not come until stoppage time. Ilkay Gundogan was deemed to have been pushed inside the box as he was going for a header, and Barca had a priceless penalty.
The Germany international made no mistake from the spot to ensure Barcelona walked away with all three points at the Estadio de Gran Canaria. After the game, Xavi claimed (h/t @BarcaTimes on X):
"Winning the league? This is the goal. We'll fight till the end."
After the end of gameweek 19, Barca sit in third — seven points behind both Real Madrid and Girona. Los Merengues lead the table due to a better head-to-head record. They lost the league title to Barcelona last season by a mammoth 10 points.
Xavi Hernandez on what he told Barcelona players at half-time against Las Palmas
With his team trailing by a goal, Xavi Hernandez told his players to make the 'right' decisions going into the second half.
Xavi even predicted a 3-1 outcome if his players did things right, and it was close to coming true. After the game, the Spaniard said, via the aforementioned source:
"I told the players at half time that if we do things right we'll win 3-1. It ended 2-1 and we could have scored the third goal in the last moments."
Just a few moments after Ilkay Gundogan's penalty kick, debutant Vitor Roque was close to scoring. Joao Felix played the Brazilian through on goal and the devastating counterattack nearly resulted in a goal, but the latter shot the ball narrowly wide.
An agreement to sign Roque, 18, was reached last summer for a €40 million fee but he joined the club from Athletico-PR this month.