Year after year, week after week, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid blame each other as to who is the most protected by the referees. A real debate which continues to make Xavi cringe. Sunday evening, the Blaugranas defeated Athletic Bilbao (1-0), thanks to the good coaching of the Spanish tactician, who relied on Marc Guiu, the sole scorer. But after the match, the Catalan coach did it again before the Classico (28/10) by siding with the referees this time.
“We try to be careful about what we can control. From the club, we do not want to condition any referee, it is not good to condition so much of a club to a referee. We’re not doing you any favors.”, he said. Xavi continues on the red card that Jude Bellingham could have received, even should have received against Sevilla on Rakitic: “There is a referee who decides. These are games that one person must referee. I can’t speak for the referee. Everyone defends their own thing. What we do not want to generate from the club and even less from the staff, is to condition the referee”. The tone is set before the next Classico and Xavi is already trying to put the referees in his pocket.
