Barça boss Luis Enrique: Unzue's chalkboard worked wonderfully today!
Luis Enrique was happy with Barcelona’s triumph in Germany. Firstly because the team came from behind against a tricky rival and secondly because they took advantage of Manchester City’s slip up at Celtic.
“City’s draw shows [the group] will be very close,” the Barça coach said. “There’s no weak team. At least so far we have done our own job. We’re not focused on what others are doing. Our target is to win the group.”
He went on to recognise the work of the whole team, although he had special praise for one player who didn’t receive much attention last season: “I’m really happy with Arda Turan. This year he’s showing the form we all knew he was capable of. He’s helping the team a lot, but that’s something we knew he’d do when we signed him.”
And on Gerard Pique, who scored the winner in the 2-1 win after Arda had equalised, he said that the Catalan defender “is at a great level. He’s a vital player for us.”
With respect to the game, Luis Enrique highlighted the team’s attitude. Despite going a goal down they kept their heads up and fought back to claim three deserved points.
He added: “I sincerely believe the result was fair. It wasn’t easy to win here because I want to remind you they were 18 games unbeaten at home, including 11 straight wins. So you can see how tough it is to win here.
“In the second half we were better positioned on the pitch than in the first half. In the first half we expected that they’d press us more, but they didn’t. They sat back more and that made things difficult because they don’t usually do that at home.”
The winning goal came from a corner and Enrique wanted to tip his hat in the direction of his assistant coach on that front: “The [set piece] strategies also help us win games. It’s clear that [assistant coach] Unzue’s chalkboard has worked wonderfully today.”
