These are going to be Xavi's most challenging four days since he began his coaching career at Barcelona.
Tonight (Wednesday) his team will host Inter for a game in which only a win will leave them with a real chance of qualifying for the round of 16 of the Champions League, and on Sunday the Catalans will face Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu.
Last week, Barcelona lost at San Siro 1:0, and despite the harsh claims Xavi had against the referee and the VAR team, especially for Denzel Dumfries' hand touch in the box that did not result in a whistle for a penalty, he knows that his team did not play well.
All this doesn't matter anymore.
Bottom line, tonight's loss - and Barcelona will continue its path in Europe in the Europa League, just like it did last season.
To avoid that, it looks like she must win all three of her remaining games.
She has no choice after the two consecutive losses, to her opponent tonight and to Bayern, (2:0) who will be hosted at the Nou Camp in the next round.
A draw against the Italians will also be problematic for Barca, as Inter is expected to beat the Czech Viktoria Plzen in the next round and secure promotion from second place thanks to the results in the direct meetings with Barcelona.
It doesn't end here.
In the Spanish media it is said that in the Barcelona dressing room they fear Bayern's assistance to Inter, which should eventually overwhelm the "House of Death".
The conspiracy theory claims that even if Barca beat Inter tonight and Bayern Munich in the next round, the Germans will intentionally lose to Inter in the last round - after their promotion is already guaranteed.
Why would the German champion do this?
To take revenge on Barcelona who took away their great star Robert Lewandowski this summer.
It is hard to believe that such a thing would happen.
It's not the kind of thing you can associate with a club as big as Bayern Munich.
But it was decided that it is possible that if Bayern reaches the last game, on November 1, after having already secured promotion from first place, they will play in a second team, in view of the load of games in the league.
In other words: Barcelona must take care of itself, and that means winning already tonight, but according to the ability it demonstrated last Saturday in the narrow victory (0:1) over Celta Vigo, it is not at all certain that this will happen.
Patty.
Doesn't get involved, photo: AFP
Lewandowski feels alone
Looking from the outside, the signs of pressure coming from Barcelona are a little strange.
The team ranks first in the league with 22 points out of a possible 24.
She scored 20 goals and conceded only one in 8 games.
She will reach the Clasico after six league wins "on zero".
Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen hasn't conceded a goal since August 21, in a 1:4 victory over Real Sociedad.
But when you look closely you can see that something bad is happening to Xavi and his players since they returned from the international break.
It started with a tiny 0:1 against Mallorca, continued with the loss in Milan, and as mentioned last Saturday they again showed a very mediocre ability against Celta.
In fact, if it weren't for Ter Stegen's great saves, Barca would not have won.
Xavi himself admitted: "Before Shavuot, we were in great momentum, now not anymore."
Barca comes to the match against Inter with quite a few problems.
Four senior defenders are injured: Jules Conde, Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen and Hector Beirin.
Against Celta, Xavi had to place Alex Balda, the young left back, as a right back.
Even Lewandowski, who started the season with a storm and scored 11 goals in the first 8 games, did not find the net in the last two, as he received very few passes.
It's not just the Polish striker who has a hard time breaking through.
Barça as a whole reached 23 goals in 8 games before the break, but only two of the goals were scored in the last three games.
Xavi.
Does he have a rabbit in his hat?, Photo: AFP
Neither Rafinha nor Ousmane Dembele manage to create continuity, and Anso Fati, as everyone has become accustomed to, cannot yet play 90 minutes.
None of the bench players who entered in the last three games were able to produce a positive change either.
And what is most worrying for Barcelona is the drop in intensity in the second half against Mallorca and Salata.
Xavi said on Saturday: "The second half was bad. We stopped pressing high, and maybe it's related to fatigue. We have a psychological problem, and this leads to the opponent getting into situations in front of us."
Xavi does not have too much time to solve the problems, professional and psychological.
If he doesn't want this season to end with an early elimination from the Champions League, already in the group stage, he needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat already tonight.
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