Barcelona midfielder Xavi felt his side “deserved much more” than to draw the first Clasico of the league season 2-2 with Real Madrid last night.
Barca trailed to a Cristiano Ronaldo goal before a brace from Lionel Messi nudged them ahead only for Ronaldo to net an equaliser which meant the Catalans’ advantage over their arch-rivals remained at eight points.
Tito Vilanova’s men dominated possession at the Nou Camp but failed to capitalise with Madrid looking dangerous on the break.
Xavi was pleased with Barca’s overall display and felt they were worthy of the three points.
He told the club’s official website: “We’re in a good moment right now, we played a great game.
“We deserved much more but we always want more when we face our arch-rivals.
“The eight-point difference allows us to take on future challenges with tranquility.”
Messi’s second goal was a wonderfully executed free-kick and moved him within one goal of the Clasico record of 18 set by Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano.
The Argentina star said: “We’re not having too much luck with injuries and were missing some important players today, but we’re lucky enough to have really good players on this team and they all do an excellent job.
“It was a great game, we would have preferred to win but we need to remember that Real Madrid are a great team.”
Both sides had decent penalty shouts turned down at the start of the second half, Mesut Ozil going down after contact with Javier Mascherano before Andres Iniesta appeared to be clipped by Pepe.
Madrid defender Pepe felt Iniesta had made the most of the opportunity to go down.
He said: “The way Iniesta fell made the referee’s job very difficult because he could see he was not going to reach the ball, he gets into the area and lets himself go to ground.
“It was a difficult match for the referee, there were two key moments and I think he did well.
“We drew at a difficult ground but we could have won. We were the team who tried hardest to win the match.
“We went out there with the feeling that we could take all three points. When we scored at the beginning the game was ours. Then in the second half we started off better than them but it was not to be.”
Madrid boss Jose Mourinho described Messi and Ronaldo as “being from another planet” and Pepe was full of praise for his countryman.
“Cristiano Ronaldo was incredible,” he added. “He played very well for the whole match. For me and the Madrid supporters he is the best player in the world, he is a very complete footballer.”