Barcelona coach Xavi expressed his gratitude for the support from former boss Ronald Koeman as he implored the Blaugrana to respond against Real Mallorca.
Xavi's side sit third in LaLiga, a point behind second-placed Sevilla – who have played a game more – and 15 behind runaway leaders Real Madrid.
However, Barca have fallen to three straight home defeats in all competitions for just the second time in their history, last doing so under Louis van Gaal between the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.
That torrid run culminated in their elimination from the Europa League and placed slight doubt over Champions League qualification, though they are six points ahead of fifth-placed Real Betis.
Koeman suggested on Thursday that Xavi deserves more support than he received when at Barca, with the Spaniard lifting the Blaugrana from ninth to third following the Dutchman's dismissal last October.
While Xavi welcomed the support of a fellow coach and revealed his admiration for Koeman, the 42-year-old urged Barca to improve against Mallorca on Sunday.
"I'm not going to change the feelings that Ronald has. I wasn't there and I'm not going to give my opinion," he told reporters at a pre-match news conference on Saturday.
"I have tremendous respect and admiration for him. Everyone has to support Barca. I have the utmost respect for Ronald for the work and effort he made. Thank him, nothing more.
"We are here and I do feel the support of the club and of Barcelona in general. It seemed that we had hit the key, but suddenly there were three defeats in a row.
"Now we have to see to the coach, the players, show our faces."
Barca have never lost four home games in a row in their history, and Xavi reiterated his calls for his side to respond against Mallorca, who have lost their last eight league meetings with the Blaugrana.
"It is time to take a step forward," he added. "You have to make more of a team than ever and bring out your personality. It's not because of a bad attitude.
"It's because of situations that have weighed us down. We have to improve. It's time to push it forward and bring out the personality. I have a winning team and that's the reality.
"You have to set challenges. Those who have the most desire will enter the Champions League. This is a club made to win titles. The second is the minimum required.
"On Monday we were angry, on Tuesday less and on Wednesday we were already working.
"It is a reality and you have to prepare yourself for that. You have to have faith to achieve the minimum objective."
Carlo Ancelotti's Madrid will be crowned champions if they avoid defeat against Espanyol the day before Barca are in action.
"If they are champions, we will congratulate them," he said of Madrid.
"They have been better because this is a long competition and usually the one who deserves it wins. We will congratulate them and next year we will compete better."
Tatum on White's buzzer-beater: 'That s*** was crazy!'
Boston Celtics hero Derrick White said "It just had to be won" after his buzzer-beating tip-in forced the Eastern Conference finals to Game 7, as Jayson Tatum added: "That s*** was crazy!"
From 3-0 down against the Miami Heat, the Celtics have fought back to 3-3 in the series, and are now just one win away from making history.
White grabbed and then sank the rebound from Marcus Smart's failed three-pointer with 0.1 seconds remaining to seal a 104-103 victory in Miami on Saturday.
The Celtics are now on the brink of the greatest comeback in NBA playoffs history, needing a win at home in Game 7 on Monday to become the first team to win a series after losing the first three games.
Boston are only the fourth NBA team to erase a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series to force a deciding game.
Reflecting on the game-winning moment, Tatum told reporters: "I'm still, like, in disbelief. That s*** was crazy.
"That felt like the longest 10 seconds ever waiting for confirmation if he made it or not."
White told TNT: "It had to be won. Whatever it takes, our backs against our wall, it just had to be won.
"We're a resilient group. We pick each other up, we bond for each other.
"The job isn't done yet, we've got a tough one Game 7, we've got to find a way to get one more win."
White had tears sparkling in his eyes, but explained: "I'm just happy. So far, so good."
It is just the second time in league history that a player has hit a buzzer-beater when his team was down and facing elimination, after Michael Jordan's legendary "The Shot", way back in 1989.
"Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man," team-mate Jaylen Brown added. "An incredible play."
The Heat can only lick their wounds as they head to Boston for Monday's winner-takes-all matchup.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said: "It's a seven-game series. There's nothing better than Game 7s.
"I don't know how we're going to get this done, but we're going to go out there and get it done, and that's what the next 48 hours is about.
"There's been nothing easy about this season for our group, and so we just have to do it the hard way."
Jimmy Butler did his best for Miami, with 24 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
"We've got to go on the road and do something special, but we've got a special group," Butler said.
'Bunny' Shaw is Manchester City Women's Player of the Season, misses out on WSL Golden Boot
Reggae Girlz captain, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw has won the award for Manchester City Women’s Player of the Season, having come out on top in a fan vote.
Shaw, in her second season for Manchester City Women, scored 31 goals in all competitions, surpassing the record for the most goals by a Women’s player across a single season. She also claimed the WSL Player of the Month awards in November and March and received the Goal of the Season prize for her strike against Arsenal in April 2023.
Shaw, who scored twice in Manchester City Women's 3-2 win over Everton on Saturday's final day of the season, did miss out on the Women’s Super League Golden Boot having bagged 20 league goals, two shy of Aston Villa’s Rachel Daley’s 22. Daley scored in Aston Villa's 2-0 win over Arsenal.
Manchester City Women finished fourth in the WSL on 47 points behind winners Chelsea Women who amassed 58 points from their 22 games. Manchester United Women finished second with 56 points. Arsenal Women were third on 47 points, the same as Manchester City Women, who lost their first two games of the season before going on a 16-game unbeaten run.
However, the Cityzens lost three of their last six games and fell out of the running for the title. They finished with a record of 15 wins, two draws and five losses.
Ange Postecoglou knows all about the expectation at Celtic
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou believes his players have become conditioned to the constant demands for success.
Captain Callum McGregor lifted the cinch Premiership trophy on Saturday after a 5-0 win over Aberdeen rounded off a season in which Celtic collected 99 points and scored a post-war club-record 114 league goals.
Postecoglou has now claimed four of five domestic trophies available since arriving from Japan in the summer of 2021 and he can follow in the footsteps of Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon by clinching the treble with Scottish Cup victory over Inverness on Saturday.
“From the moment I arrived, I think I have said many times, coming off a trophyless season, we could not go another year without winning something,” he said.
“From the first day I arrived, irrespective of what happened at the start of the season, I made it clear to the boys that expectation is always there.
“That will never change. Whether you are winning or not winning, expectation at this football club is you have success every year.
“I think the players have become conditioned to that. They train like that every day, they behave like that. Callum is pushing them like that every day. You can’t have an off day. You can’t have an off season.”
Postecoglou is already thinking about how he can improve Celtic next season.
“You can’t stand still in this game,” he said. “It changes very quickly. It’s fine margins between having success again and not being successful.
“And more than that, this team’s going to improve. Most of the key players in this team, you can see them improving.
“All the the ones who joined last year have had better years this year than last year, and the ones who stayed, Callum and Greg Taylor and Tony Ralston, all those guys, have all come on, and had better years this year.
“That tells me there’s more improvement. There has to be.”
Aberdeen manager Barry Robson will try to make sure his side compete better with Celtic next season but he sensed Saturday’s game would be difficult given the occasion and the fact his side had achieved their goal of finishing third in the league three days earlier.
Robson, whose side will be guaranteed European group stage football if Celtic win the cup, said: “We’re going to try our best in every department and be as good as we can possibly be.
“We know the differences in finance between teams in the league.
“I’ve played for teams challenging the Old Firm and I’ve played for the Old Firm myself, so I know how difficult it is.
“But we need to be as good an Aberdeen team as we can be, which we’ve done, and also perform well in Europe.
“We need Celtic to do us a turn at Hampden next week.
“That wasn’t our fight. Our fight was getting to third. But we want to make it a fight.”
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
