Mystery of the Barça note solved: 'There was so much on it'

Soccereco, Staff Writer

Published: 12:03, 5 Nov 2023

Ronald Araújo secured a late victory for Barcelona against Real Sociedad on Saturday, but afterwards, the talk was mostly about Xavi Hernández's note. Iñigo Martínez provided the explanation.

Just before the hour mark, Xavi handed a note to Martínez. The defender took his task seriously, for it was not until the seventieth minute that he discarded Xavi's annotations. "There was so much written down that I couldn't even remember what was on it," Martínez joked with Mundo Deportivo. "I didn't even know what to tell my teammates."

Xavi gave Martínez the note in the 58th minute. The paper contained notes for the defender himself, but also for his teammates. "It had to do with a tactical issue," the coach later said at the press conference. "Because of all the changes we had made, doubts could arise about the positions."

Martínez seems to have passed on the instructions well, as Barça played their way to victory in the last half hour. Araújo scored the only goal of the game in the 92nd minute.