It’s only been a few weeks since Xavi said “there was an abysmal gap” between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Frankly, it will be a surprise if Los Blancos don’t stress the truth of his words in the Spanish Supercopa semi-final on Wednesday (LIVE broadcast, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN +) by punching Blaugrana XI.

The former Barcelona magic midfielder, now the coach in charge of producing a silk handbag from the sow’s ear situation he inherited, was basically talking about the point gap in the chart. But ahead of what threatens to be Barcelona’s fifth straight loss to Madrid – something that hasn’t happened since 1962 to 1964 – it’s likely that Xavi wishes he hadn’t said anything like it. Because somehow he has to convince his injury-afflicted, coronavirus-suffering, super-young, ultra-nascent squad that they’re not going to get a healthy prank at the hands of Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior, Eder Militao, Toni Kroos & Co. Once again.

Suddenly, with the effervescence of Nico and Gavi, the return of Ansu Fati, the possible return of the winner of the Golden Boy Pedri, Luuk De Jong scoring goals and the signing of 55 million euros of Ferran Torres with great fanfare. , Barcelona (in principle, at least) should be able to field a better XI that can compete with most teams – Madrid included. But not right now.

Ansu and Pedri have missed most of the season, as have Torres. Midfielder Frenkie de Jong will not be in shape to play. If defenseman Ronald Araujo is successful, he will be on the pitch five days after surgery on a broken bone in his hand. Center-back Eric Garcia won’t be ready for much competitive action until the end of February. This, to put it bluntly, is about a million miles from the best time to play against a Real Madrid side that recently racked up a string of big-game performances to fend off rivals like Real Sociedad, Atletico, l ‘Athletic and Sevilla in LaLiga, plus Inter Milan, champions of Italy, in the Champions League.

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The victory became Pavlovian for Madrid. The Nobel Prize-winning Russian scientist has played with the dogs’ conditioned reflex, training them so that when a bell rings, it’s time to salivate with hunger. Madrid are “the best in the show”, to continue the analogy, because although they have shown an Achilles heel to people like Espanyol, Sheriff Tiraspol and Getafe this season, whenever a big rival is in sight, they react with spikes, relentless and winning character.

It’s admirable … and very dangerous for this version of Barcelona.

Barca defender Gerard Pique disagrees. “I’m optimistic we can hurt them,” the 34-year-old defender said earlier this week. “It was unfair that they won Camp Nou Clasico this season, but then we were in deep trouble. The scenario has changed. We are on the rise. “

Let’s come back to these words after the game. Football is an unpredictable sport, but Barcelona would upset these particular odds would be quite seismic.

At least Xavi has been here before.

A positive point in the old “half-full glass” equation is that the Barcelona coach once lived through a time when Madrid made Barca kneel down, when things at Camp Nou were chaotic, riddled with debts and deeply lacked Catalan confidence. And Los Blancos took full advantage. The good thing is that Xavi suffered from it, learned as a footballer, and then wrote the best seasons in Barcelona and Spain football history. The tunnel can be long and dark, but there is light if you go in the right direction.

Xavi debuted in a Clasico as an exciting 20-year-old organizing midfielder, but was quickly beaten 3-0 by a pre-Galactic team including Nicolas Anelka, Geremi, Aitor Karanka and Guti. During the next four years, he could only savor one Clasico victory (out of eight matches) and was part of the Barcelona squad that suffered the ultimate humiliation of being knocked out of the 2002 Champions League semi-final by Madrid’s Vicente del Bosque. It was misery for the Catalan who supported, and even adored, Barcelona long before it appeared he could make the grade there.

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Like Raul, Iker Casillas or (currently) Dani Carvajal at Madrid, Xavi’s passion for Barca insignia began long before huge salaries guaranteed such loyalty to the club. Ironically, it was around this time – when Xavi was young Madrid were dominant and his future was treated nonchalantly by most at Camp Nou – that he almost played for the man who will be in the opposition dugout. at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium sold out this week: Carlo Ancelotti.

AC Milan spotted Xavi’s outburst, sniffed the opportunity to take advantage of Barcelona’s inept management of the man who would ultimately become their best midfielder of all time, and mounted a smash and grab operation. . Ancelotti was still a few months away from being hired to manage the Rossoneri for eight hugely successful years, but then-CEO Adriano Galliani came to the Catalan capital, met Xavi’s dad and put on the table a succulent five-year contract.

His father liked the idea, while Xavi was swayed by the attractiveness of San Siro and the club that had won the Champions League so devastatingly at Camp Nou (with Ancelotti as a player), 4-0 against Le Steaua Bucharest in 1989, when he was a nine year old child with starry eyes. Everything almost happened. It wasn’t until Xavi’s mother Maria Merce literally told her husband it was a divorce issue if her youngest son went to Serie A that AC Milan were made aware. that the agreement was canceled.

Xavi was going to make the most of life in an era of Camp Nou without a trophy and rudder… and it didn’t work out too badly. In fact, there are more things that unite Ancelotti and Xavi than dividing them.

The pair were similar as players: each of them excelled at organization and attacking the midfield. Each of them made their debut at 18; between them, they have lifted the Champions League trophy nine times. They left Barcelona and Madrid respectively in June 2015 – Ancelotti sacked for failing in Champions League and La Liga; Xavi with a full Camp Nou, booming Bruce Springsteen on the tannoy, his whole family there in tears and three trophies, his second hat-trick for the club.

However, they don’t coach the same and don’t have identical philosophies about how they want their teams to play: Ancelotti is the specialist in “I’ll adapt to what I’ve been given” , while Xavi is the researcher. the holy grail of positioning, possession, pressing, 4-3-3 football. But they’re incredibly similar in what is now almost the hardest part of a manager’s job at an elite club filled with superstars: the whispering of the players.

John Terry told Ancelotti’s ghost writer in his book “Quiet Leadership” that “you know his training is great, but it’s the personal touches – asking about family, caring about things off the field – that’s for me why players love. Instead of being aloof, it’s always that group mentality. ” Change Carlo’s name to Xavi and despite the great disparity in coaching experience, the same words could apply to the Catalan.

Outwardly, each of them is an absolute gentleman: humorous, upbeat, open, upbeat, a wonderful company full of stories and learned wisdom. They are still passionately obsessed with the sport itself and not just their own careers but also the men who make football great. Few behind-the-scenes changes, but each of them has an unmistakably harsh side again if they feel like those who work for them aren’t entirely ‘on the ball’.

At half-time during their elimination from the Champions League last month, Xavi left his players in the locker room to their ears: his words would have stripped the paint. After the match, he explained that “FC Barcelona deserve better than what we have seen: a new era begins here and now”.

Ancelotti rarely shows the audacity, either publicly or to his team, that all of his former players and former assistants swear they can be unleashed if his standards are not met. Once, while at the helm of Paris Saint-Germain, in a game against Evian where they weren’t doing well, the caterpillar-eyed Italian got so angry in the mid- time he pushed the door open to the point that his assistant, Paul Clément, thought he might have injured himself. Ancelotti then kicked a crate on the ground, which flew off and cracked Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the head.

In Ancelotti’s previous two seasons at the helm of the Bernabeu, Xavi the player got the better of him – fair. the Clasico the tally was 3-2 in favor of Barcelona, ​​although one of Ancelotti’s victories was the Copa del Rey final; perhaps, pound for pound, the honors were equal?

Shortly after they both left their respective clubs in June 2015, they were reunited at the Officers’ Conference in London, where Xavi was invited to present an award to Ancelotti. His point of view was: “It is an honor to present an award like this to Carlo, who has been exemplary in all the countries where he has coached. He has won trophies in all the leagues he has worked in but, beyond simply winning and losing, he has always set standards: respectful without fail, to his players, his rivals, the referees. I’m proud to know him. “

Ancelotti’s response was generally: “Xavi is wonderful, a great example to everyone in football. Beyond his immense quality as a player, he has always displayed an attitude and demeanor. fantastic in the field. “

It was a kind of love between the two. While they may disagree, gesticulate and maybe even briefly fall out on Wednesday, and although they are in very different phases of their coaching careers, Ancelotti and Xavi share a lot more in common than they do. Split. Magnificent midfielders, cute coaches, football freaks. Honest men.