The Catalan coach's comment over a week ago seemed to rile some Madrid reporters

Real Madrid’s pre-Champions League press conference was riddled with a bad case of ‘Barcelonitis’. Various questions were made to Lucas Vazquez about what Xavi said a whole week ago, recalling Lionel Messi’s comment about “the Champions League not always being won by the best side”. 

The obsession reached the point where two questions were made about the same topic. Vazquez’s responses were elegant and he stayed far from controversy.

“They are things that we hear sometimes but in the end it’s complicated. Winning a Champions League is not by luck or chance, each Champions League is more difficult. Outside opinions don’t matter to us.”

He added: “It doesn’t annoy us that people say it, it’s an extra motivation, last year they did not take us as favourites, we try to win every year.”

The press conference had to be stopped for a few moments because the translator did not even understand the question. The obsession with Xavi even crosses borders.