With this success against Villarreal, Barcelona are now eleven points ahead of Real, who play Wednesday against Elche.
Xavi (FC Barcelona coach, winner 1-0 at Villarreal on Sunday for the 21st day of La Liga, in a post-match press conference):
«The opponent played eye to eye with us. But we had a lot of chances to score, we were precise in our organization, in our pressure after losing the ball… We knew that Villarreal were exposing themselves a lot, that they were playing almost one-on-one throughout the ground. But we managed to get out of this pressure. The only thing we missed was scoring more goals, but everything else was great: great play and a clean sheet. I made changes very late, because I felt the team very well, in legs. The gap with Real Madrid (11 points with one match played more than the people of Madrid, editor’s note) is not at all final, there are still 18 or 17 matches left. It is enormous. But we are on the right track. We learned to win these matches which are hard to win.»