The reason why coach Xavi was furious with Felix and took him off during half-time

This Wednesday Barcelona got an important victory 3-2 against Almeria at the Olympic Stadium Lluis Companys in Montjuic. They had gone three games without a win in all competitions, after losing against Royal Antwerp in the Champions League, the defeat against Girona and the draw against Valencia in La Liga.

In the European tournament they qualified for the round of 16 as leaders of Group H and will face Napoli in the next round. But in the Spanish league those bad results cost them dearly: they were in third place in the table, 6 points behind leaders Girona, and that gap can increase to 9 points if Los Tozudos beat Real Betis this Thursday.

That's why the match against Almeria was so important. They needed to recover from the bad results and show that they can still compete for the title. But their performances were disappointing and they had to work hard to beat the weakest team in the tournament. In fact, they ended the first half with a 1-1 draw.

When the teams returned to the field after the break, everyone was surprised not to see Joao Felix with his teammates. He was replaced by Ferrán Torres, and Andreas Christensen was replaced by Jules Koundé. Xavi Hernandez's decision proved to be the right one, as the team's performance improved a lot in the second half and Los Blaugranas won the match.

What happened to him?

Many speculated that Joao Felix angered Xavi by his reaction before Almeria's first goal. The Catalan team lost the ball and the forward did not make the necessary effort to press the rival players and try to win it back. In fact, during the post-match press conference, the coach said: "The first half was unacceptable and I have told them that. The pressure and aggressiveness was not acceptable". Although he later clarified: “We can't point to one player. It was in general”.