The Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernández has reversed his decision to leave the club at the end of the season as 'circumstances have changed'. Xavi originally decided to leave Barça, citing 'a lack of respect' with the belief that the club needed 'a change of direction'. However now he has said 'the main motive wasn’t because of the internal pressure' adding that he is keen to 'continue here with the utmost happiness ... [I am] willing to keep working and building a winning project'. Xavi Hernández to stay on as Barcelona head coach in dramatic U-turn Xavi’s Barça U-turn shows breaking up i ..read more

Announcement was no shock but reflects environment shift at club and an appetite to find stability after a dismal week Being the Barcelona manager is “cruel and unpleasant” Xavi Hernández said, but in the end it is all he ever wanted, all he has got. He is all they have got too. And so on Wednesday night, three days after any lingering hopes of winning the league were extinguished, eight days after being knocked out of Europe again, 88 after announcing he was leaving and calling it a “liberation”, he decided that he would continue after all. Ultimately, he just could not let go and nor could t ..read more

Lamine Yamal’s strike in 3-2 loss on Sunday not given by VAR Barça believe ball crossed the line and could demand replay Barcelona’s president, Joan Laporta, has threatened legal action and could demand a replay after his side were denied a goal against Real Madrid at the weekend. Lamine Yamal thought he had scored in the 28th minute of Sunday’s 3-2 clásico loss at the Bernabéu but the on-pitch officials did not rule the ball had crossed the line, and after a lengthy VAR check, their decision stood. La Liga does not use goalline technology ..read more

The league opened with Jude Bellingham and closed with him too. Way back in August, the Englishman stood before the stands at the place they call the Cathedral and spread his arms wide having scored on the first night of the rest of his life, his arrival announced; now, eight months later, he did it again, the entire Santiago Bernabéu welcomed in, all 77,981 of them, and millions more around the world. It has become a trademark, and it meant the title. Ninety minutes were up in the biggest game on earth and it was 2-2 when Lucas Vázquez, absolutely tireless all night, delivered one last pass t ..read more

Barcelona led twice but Madrid equalised before Jude Bellingham’s injury-time winner near enough settled the title Email! “I have no horse in this race,” says Adam Griffiths, “but Barcelona putting out their line-up in squad number rather than position order means I want them to get a) fired from a catapult into a volcano and b) a right doing tonight.” I am, of course, impartial, but also I can’t argue with facts ..read more

Having been knocked out of the Champions League, failure to win at the Bernabéu will end all hopes of a trophy On Tuesday, some Barcelona fans mistakenly threw stones and bottles at their own bus as it made its way into Montjuïc. The huge club badge and massive “Barça” written on the side were not enough of a clue. In fairness, they might not have seen that through the crowd and all the smoke. As for the metaphor, the self-inflicted damage, that was harder to miss. By the end of the night, Barcelona were out of the Champions League, failing to reach the semi-final for a sixth successive season ..read more

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernández berated the referee and said his performance cost the club a chance to fight for a place in the Champions League semi-finals after they lost 4-1 to Paris St Germain and were knocked out of the competition. 'Since I am here, all of them were against us. All of them. I mean, all of them,' Xavi said. Mbappé seals wild PSG comeback win as Barcelona implode after Araújo red ..read more

Ronald Araújo’s first-half sending off turned the tide, as Kylian Mbappé, Vitinha and former Barça player Ousmane Dembélé scored the goals that sent Xavi’s side crashing out 2 min: Mbappé runs at young Cubarsí but comes off second best, sprawling on the turf. He wants a foul, but play is waved on, correctly so. Great challenge by the 17-year-old defender. “In the First World War, the Turkish troops fought their own division in a thick fog while trying to progress in Russia,” writes Krishna Moorthy. “I always thought this was an exaggeration but after FCB fans attacking their own bus, I tend to ..read more

Just when Montjuïc roared, clinging to the hope that there might be a way back into this, one last chance to see Barcelona reach the semi-final for the first time in five years, there was Kylian Mbappé and his Paris Saint-Germain teammates sprinting across the running track in celebration. Two goals down from the first leg, one down in the second, Luis Enrique’s side had come back to lead 3-1 in the second, 5-4 overall, but had been on edge until the very last minute. When, at last, they broke away and silenced the Olympic Stadium. It had been a long night for them, and even longer for Barcelo ..read more

Barcelona take 3-2 lead into Tuesday’s second leg at Camp Nou ‘We need our fans to be loud because PSG will make us suffer’ Barcelona are ready for a battle against Paris Saint-Germain in the return leg of their Champions League quarter-final, Xavi Hernández said on Monday, adding that his players are willing to suffer in order to advance. Barça beat PSG 3-2 in the first leg in France last week but Xavi said his side would need to be nearly flawless to reach the semi-finals for the first time in five years ..read more