Barça have dropped points for the 13th time this season, this time away at Levante. The 3-3 draw against the Valencian club practically ends any hope Barça had of winning LaLiga, as admitted by Ronald Koeman and Sergio Busquets in their post-match comments.
Here is what Koeman had to say:
On the team’s collapse in the second half
“Sometimes it is very difficult to explain. In the first half we were good, with intensity and good rhythm of the ball. We created opportunities to score and, from the beginning of the second half, we started to lose the ball, we lowered the intensity, and they surprised us in several plays. And then it is difficult to change the flow, because you encouraged the opponent and let them enter the game. And Levante has done well there. For me there is no other explanation.”
Have you said goodbye to LaLiga?
“It’s more complicated, but it always depends on several factors. We had to win the last three games and wait. Now it’s very complicated.”
On who is responsible for the result
“As a coach, you are always the most responsible and I ask myself what have we done at halftime because we talked about improving things defensively and maintaining intensity. And we did not do that. As a coach, technical staff, we are annoyed. We had the game 0-2. I didn’t expect a draw.”
On if he understands that his role as Barça coach will start being questioned now
“Coaches are always questioned. And I fully understand that there are questions.”
On if he feels strong enough to start a fresh project next season
“It is a complicated question because we are disappointed by the final result and we ask ourselves what happened. That is today. We must first digest today’s draw, which is already a lot.”
Here is what Busquets had to say:
On the feelings they leave the game with
“We leave with bad feelings because we wanted to put pressure but we couldn’t. We were ahead many times, but as has happened during parts of the season, they scored easy goals against us, they caused us difficulties and the point is too little because LaLiga is lost for us now.”
On the team’s performance
“We were not precise. They took advantage of it. But even so we had some clear chances that fell to Frenkie, to Pedri, but it wasn’t meant to be. We did not have a good second half.”
On the remainder of the LaLiga season
“We have few options. It will depend on the rivals but this is our fault, decisions, concentration. They score easy goals against us. We had a good stretch of the season where we had a spark but we did not have it today. We lost too many points to be able to fight for LaLiga. Mathematically it’s not impossible, and it was not this game, it was a whole part of the season that cost us. I have already explained it.”
