Europa League danger, Xavi responds to Jose Mourinho

“If we have to play the Europa League, we will play it.”

With Champions League round of 16 qualification hanging by a thread — if Inter Milan win their match against Viktoria Plzen, Barcelona will have to settle for going down to the Europa League — Xavi Hernandez is under no illusions about his team’s possible continuation in the top club competition.

In the usual press conference the day before, the Catalans’ coach spoke about the Inter and Barça matches, without being controversial about the fact that the Nerazzurri will take the field earlier, at 6:45 p.m., thus having the chance to make a possible feat of the Blaugrana against the battleship Bayern Munich in vain.

“I am a positive person and I always have confidence, but we do not depend on ourselves. We lost this privilege in the previous days and now we just have to hope. If things go wrong we will play with Bayern to prove to ourselves that we can compete at this level,” he began.

“Inter’s match time was determined by the draw from the beginning, I don’t care at all. We have to win our game. What would I say to Viktoria? The only thing I miss is that I have to tell them something…I am ready to coach Viktoria Pilzen, that’s all I need,” he added jokingly.

There was no shortage of questions about the provocation of Jose Mourinho, who in recent days had referred to the big boys who will go down to the Europa League as “The big failed sharks of the Champions League, who however should not be in the Europa League.” Xavi was laconic in his response comment, “Mourinho’s words? I don’t have to answer to him. If we have to play the Europa League we will play it,” he concluded.