El Clasico: Gundogan Slams Barcelona Teammates in Honest Interview after Real Madrid Defeat

• Illkay Gundogan openly criticised his Barcelona colleagues following their defeat to Real Madrid
• The German's remarks underscore the disparities in mindset between him and his Barcelona teammates
• Meanwhile, Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez believes his team did not merit the loss

Illkay Gundogan expressed his profound dissatisfaction with his teammates in the aftermath of Barcelona's defeat to Real Madrid, and he didn't shy away from voicing his sentiments.

The Catalan giants suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of their intense rivals in the season's first Clásico on Saturday afternoon.

Before the match at Catalunya, the Spanish champions had maintained an unbeaten record in La Liga but found themselves one point behind Carlo Ancelotti's side in the league standings.

But after Gundogan opened the scoring in the 6th minute, Jude Bellingham, probably the most in-form player in the world right now, netted a brace to hand a hard-fought win for Real Madrid, per The Athletic.

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And when questioned about the emotional impact of the result on Barcelona, the 33-year-old German didn't hold back in sharing his thoughts.

"We need to make a huge step in that otherwise Real Madrid or even Girona is going to run away," Gundogan said via Optus Sports.

" I didn’t come here to lose these types of games or to let that gap create. There’s also a responsibility from myself, from a more experienced player, to not allow the squad to just let things happen, we need resistance."

Xavi's tactical masterplan to stop Vini

Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Xavi Hernandez is acutely aware of the menace posed by Vinicius and has been actively devising a robust strategy to contain the Brazilian's influence on the game.

In light of the ongoing injury crisis affecting his team, and with Jules Kounde unavailable for the match, Xavi is purportedly considering deploying central defender Ronald Araujo in the right-back position to counter Vinicius's threat.

Araujo, known primarily as a centre-back, has notably demonstrated his defensive prowess in previous encounters against the Real Madrid attacker while operating in the right-back role.