Messi and Pedro stole the headlines against PSG last night, but behind them, Xavi kept the supply lines ticking over in typically brilliant fashion.
Last night’s 1-1 draw with PSG wasn’t a vintage Barcelona performance by any means but a few of their players had reasons to be satisfied with their contribution as the Catalans progressed to the Champions League semi-finals.
A half-fit Lionel Messi, for example, made a huge difference when introduced from the bench in the second half, while creator David Villa and scorer Pedro influenced proceedings with their roles in the Barca equaliser.
Messi and company need a conductor behind them to keep the supply lines ticking over and in Xavi, they have one of the best, if not the best midfield orchestrator in the game on their side.
The Spanish midfielder has delivered a string of accomplished displays in the Champions League and rarely gives the opposition a sniff but last night, according to Opta, he didn’t give the ball away once despite making nearly 100 passes (the tweet says 96 and the graph says 92 but however many there were they were all accurate) in the Nou Camp, a record since Opta started analysing the Champions League.
Graphic via 101 Great Goals
Some will argue that too much can be read into pass completion stats and that Barca’s passing stats are given too much significance because they sometimes exchange little two-yard passes when nobody’s around.
Xavi, though, is not the type of player who passes the ball for the sake of passing it and it will probably be a long time before we see an example of such perfection again in the future.
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