Barcelona coach Xavi still feels that the elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Inter in 2010 is a painful memory.
Speaking to Amazon Prime, the coach looked back on that semi-final matchup, and made clear that he hopes to have a much different outcome in this meeting of the two teams.
Xavi was a Barcelona player when the Blaugranas met Inter in the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 2009-10 campaign.
Inter won the first leg 3-1 before seeing out a 1-0 loss in the second to go through to the final 3-2 on aggregate.
This had been a big disappointment for a Barcelona who had been regarded as favourites to win the competition, whilst the Nerazzurri used it as a platform to win the Champions League and the European treble.
Xavi looked back on it, stating that “It’s a bad memory, a very tough elimination, we had to travel there by bus.”
“There was a lot of controversy, in both Milan and Barcelona,” he continued, “red cards, penalties, offside goals.”
“It’s a bad memory because we didn’t go through to the final, which Inter then won, but a semi-final is always a very intense match.”
And of this evening’s match, the coach said that “We’re Barcelona, there is always pressure.”
“It’s an uncomfortable situation because we haven’t won either in Munich or in Milan and now we have an urgent need to win.”
“We face it with a positive mentality and with a desire to take the three points.”
“With the help of our fans I think we can win,” he added.
Xavi noted that “We will play in front of our fans, we want to have a great match against a very good Inter team who work very well defensively and play a physical game, but we will try to impose our game and attack a little better the way we did in the final 20-30 minutes in Milan.”
