Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez has reacted to his team's embarrassing 4-0 ElClasico defeat at the hands of Karim Benzema and Real Madrid.
Check Out: Benzema Equals Unique Ronaldo Record After Hat-Trick
The Frenchman continued his fine form in front of goal by netting three times in Los Blancos' Copa del Rey semi-final second-leg thumping of their rivals at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night.
Benzema has now struck two consecutive hat-tricks for the 14-time UEFA Champions League winners as he became the first Real player to score a triple in ElClasico since 1995.
The 4-1 aggregate score ended Barcelona's hopes of a domestic treble, with Xavi saying in his post-match press conference that the reaction from the players will be of the utmost importance.
"We have to be united, it's a difficult moment. In difficult moments you see how a team reacts," he said, according to Sport.
"It's a difficult night to take, a heavy defeat. We competed much better than the result says. Mistakes of not knowing how to compete well penalised us,"
"In the first half we were very good, we were superior in terms of play, chances, aggression. We conceded very little.
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"As for the transitions, we talked about the fact that we had to stop them and that's where the 0-1 came from.
"The 0-2 killed us as soon as we came out of the dressing room. In short, it's a pity. We had a good first half and a bad second half."
Benzema, who has now reached the 25-goal mark for the season, seems to have hit peak form at the right time for Los Blancos ahead of his side's Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Chelsea next week.
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