Often, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez has no problem justifying his team's failure to win, most recently after the blaugrana drew against Getafe.

In that match, Barcelona failed to win for the third time in a row in all competitions, and the second in La Liga after a goalless draw with hosts Getafe for the matchday 29.

The match between Getafe and Barcelona was held at 16:15 Spanish time (17:15 Mecca time), which infuriated Xavi, due to the sun's coverage of a large part of the stadium, in addition to its poor ground.

Getafe y Barcelona empataron 0-0.

Xavi: "Estamos acostumbrados a jugar de noche y sin sol".

La respuesta de Quique Sánchez Flores, DT del equipo madrileño, es entender absolutamente todo.pic.twitter.com/fB6j9ydCWvpic.twitter.com/e78y7yVzBd

— VarskySports (@VarskySports) April 16, 2023

The Spanish newspaper "Marca" (Marca) that Xavi surprised everyone in the press conference after the match, when he justified his team's draw by saying, "We are used to playing at night, and without sunlight."

"Actually the condition of the grass affected us, knowing that we trained on dry grass before the game, but the whole world saw how difficult it was, it's very difficult to play like that."

"It's not good to play football, the ball stays stuck and doesn't spin fast, it's bad even for Getafe as well, in fact the conditions should be better," Xavi said.

The Spanish newspaper recalled some of Xavi's statements during his career as a player and coach, in which he justified his team's failure to win because of the pitch, or his criticism of the way the opponents play.

Potato field

Xavi witnessed many "El Clasico" confrontations between Barcelona and Real Madrid, during the exciting period in which coaches Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho were present, in which he did not hesitate to criticize the "royal" team.

"We didn't leave the pitch dry to play in a potato field, we didn't kick our opponents 30,<> times, we didn't tense up games, we won, we lost, we drawn, but always according to our own playing philosophy," he said of Real Madrid.

Control is more important than winning

In the 2012-2013 season, Barcelona suffered a tough loss from Bayern Munich (0-7) on aggregate in the Champions League semi-finals.

#OTD 6️⃣ years ago. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KaniBmZ7jd

— 🇺🇸 FC Bayern US 🇨🇦 (@FCBayernUS) May 1, 2019

But Xavi's view of what happened was completely different: "If we only look at the result, it's a superficial view, you have to watch the two games again, the ball was ours, they couldn't control us," he said.

Grass

The pitch is arguably an obsession for Xavi, in most games where Barcelona do not win, and he has criticised this many times.

Xavi once said after losing to Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderón that the grass "was very dry, and that caused us many difficulties, we wanted to move the ball quickly but they didn't spray the pitch with water."

"It's been many years since we've seen a pitch like this, there's a big risk for players from getting injured, we've played a lot in bad stadiums, but not that bad," he said before a Spain match, when La Roja played a session at the Tumba del Baok stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece.

"We are the only ones who played"

Barcelona lost the Copa del Rey title to rivals Real Madrid in the 2013-2014 season, with a score of (1-2) with the famous goal scored by the Welshman Gareth Bale.

Xavi justified the defeat by saying: "We were the only ones who wanted to play football, we controlled most of the game and saw the Barcelona we wanted, but unfortunately they beat us from a counter-attack."