With a win, FC Barcelona could have pulled away to ten points - instead, the leaders of the Spanish league failed. Real Madrid benefit from this, although Los Blancos don't win either. Barça's coach Xavi is audibly served.
Coach Xavi didn't look for excuses. "No excuses. We played really badly," said the former professional and current coach of FC Barcelona and attested to his team around center forward Robert Lewandowski and German national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen: "That was our worst game of the season" and "I'm very angry". "Intensity" and "speed" were missing, especially in the first half.
"It's a shame, we had a great opportunity," said the 43-year-old. Or as the sports newspaper "As" put it: "The front runner dizzy, Real Madrid grin." Because instead of rushing the royals to ten points on matchday 23 in the Spanish football championship, Real even made up a point despite their own draw on Saturday in the Madrid derby against Atlético.
The arch-rivals are now separated by seven points. "We could have gotten a bigger advantage in the league but it didn't work out," said Eric García. Meanwhile, the Spanish media celebrated the renewed tension in the title fight - behind their eternal rivals, Real Sociedad and Atlético are already 16 and 17 points adrift in first place.
The next mood dampener after the end of the Europa League against Manchester United comes at the worst possible time for FC Barcelona. There would be some tricky games ahead of them, Eric García said. Especially next Thursday when Barça have to play the semi-final first leg of the Copa del Rey at Real Madrid's Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
In LaLiga, the Catalans lost the first leg against Real last October in the capital 3-1. It was also FC Barcelona's only defeat in the league until the 24th-minute goal from El Bilal Touré in Almería. Instead, Ter Stegen's eighth goal in this league season was enough to make the second defeat perfect.
