JAKARTA - Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernandez praised the combination of Pedri and Gavi in his team's midfield. According to the coach, both of them performed better in guarding the middle sector than the duet between himself and Andres Iniesta when they were still defending the Blaugrana at a young age.
Pedri and Gavi are indeed Xavi's mainstay in Barcelona's midfield. Even though both players are still very young.
Pedri is still 20 years old, while Gavi is now only 18 years old. So far both names have made 19 appearances for the Katalan-based team.
From that performance Pedri has contributed by scoring three goals, while Gavi has packed one assist to help Barca lead La Liga's standings.
Long before the duet of Pedri and Gavi, there was a duet between Xavi and Iniesta not infrequently considered the greatest duet in the history of Barca and Spain. Both of them led Barca to dominate domestic football and win four Champions League titles.
In addition, Xavi and Iniesta also had a major impact on Spain's success in winning the 2010 World Cup and two European Cup champions in 2008 and 2012.
"When I was 20 years old and Andres (Iniesta) 20 years old, we weren't at the level of Pedri and Gavi now," Xavi was quoted as saying by ESPN on Wednesday, December 21.
"They are superior to us when we were 20 years old, well, even Gavi is still 18! They are more involved in the first team at the age of 20 and 18," he continued.
He added, "How Gavi competes, the passion he has, for me, is a guarantee of success. We were not as high as they were."
However, Xavi did not rule out the role of other young players in the team. He said Eric Garcia and Ansu Fati also contributed no less.
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