Xavi and Ilkay Gundogan highlight defensive errors in Barcelona loss to Girona

Barcelona’s 4-2 La Liga loss to Girona was down to defensive mistakes according to Xavi and Ilkay Gundogan.

La Blaugrana suffered just their second home defeat of the season as neighbours Girona netted four times at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys.

The visitors benefitted from some slack defending to open the scoring as Andreas Christensen failed to cut out a long ball forward in the build up.

Miguel Gutierrez netted a wonder goal for Girona’s second, with a noticeable lack of pressure on the Girona left back, and Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde were both caught out for Goal No.3.

Cristhian Stuani’s clincher was finished off with the veteran striker enjoying the freedom of the Barcelona penalty area and Xavi and Gundogan vented their joint frustration at full time.

“The mistakes in defence have taken their toll on us. They are the important details”, Xavi told a post match interview with Marca.

“Today we lost because of defensive problems. Collectively, we didn’t defend as expected”, stated a frustrated Gundogan.

Barcelona only have a small window to recover in the coming days, ahead of a Champions League trip to Royal Antwerp, followed by a league clash at Valencia next weekend.

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