Barcelona has just had an extremely complicated week. After a significant decline in both playing style and results, Xavi's army has faced two important matches, one in the Champions League and one in La Liga.
Both of those games could decide the outcome of the entire season for Barca. They need a victory against Porto in the Champions League to qualify for the next round and secure the top spot. In La Liga, defeating Atletico Madrid is almost a must, as the gap with Real Madrid increases.
In the end, Barcelona completed their mission with 2 victories despite many difficulties.
It is worth noting that both matches will take place at Montjuic Stadium, Barca's home stadium in the context of Camp Nou being upgraded. The match against Porto attracted a fairly impressive number of fans of 43,533 people, while the maximum capacity was 50,000 people. This can even be considered a high number because the match takes place in the middle of the week.
However, the number of spectators coming to watch the match against Atletico Madrid decreased surprisingly and alarmingly.
Only 34,568 fans gathered at the stadium. The match takes place over the weekend and the opponent is Atletico Madrid, one of the strongest teams in La Liga. It is difficult to explain why fans turned their backs on such a match.
"The match against Atletico Madrid is very important, we need the encouragement of Barcelona fans. We have to win 3 points and the players need the support of the fans. I call on everyone to support, to come to the stadium", president Joan Laporta shared before the match.
And Laporta is not the only one to push the audience to the stadium. Xavi and Robert Lewandowski also made similar statements.
There is another important detail, which is that the match that took place a few days ago between the Barca women's team and the Real Madrid women's team had a larger audience than this match. The Blaugrana girls attracted 38,707 fans in the stands in the match against Real Madrid. The difference of 4,000 fans is truly a figure worth discussing.
"The reasons could be the fixtures and cold weather. We need fans and those who came to the stadium witnessed a great match. We need them in the upcoming match against Girona, a great team and are 4 points ahead of us," Xavi said after the win over Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona won 1-0 against Atletico Madrid with the only goal of Joao Felix. The special thing is that the Portuguese player is still on Atletico's payroll and has been loaned to Barca this season. The striker even had a celebratory performance that was considered a province after scoring against Atletico.
"I told Joao Felix to stay calm. He has to use his circumstances as additional motivation for this match. He played very well.
Signing Joao Felix will forever depend on the club's sports department. Personally, I am very satisfied with him. Felix is a great kid in the dressing room, not causing problems, always sociable and I'm very happy to have him in the team," Xavi defended Felix after the huge celebration.
Currently, Barcelona is ranked 3rd in La Liga after 15 rounds, 4 points behind Girona and Real Madrid. Obviously, Xavi's team needs to extend their winning streak to attract fans back to the stands...
