Ernesto Valverde: It was strange to come back to San Mames

Barcelona's coach spoke to the media after his side won 2-0 at Athletic Club in Bilbao. Here are his key quotes:

On coming back to Bilbao: “The truth is that is was a little stranger than I thought, before and during the game. It's been a different day, I don't know... Maybe because it's a new stadium and to have the fans willing on the other team... it was difficult. You're not used to the feeling that [the supporters] are pushing on the opposition... but that's how it is and you have to go through it. Now I can chat to all the familiar faces, which I didn't want to do before because that's not why we're here. But now, after the game, it's a bit more relaxed and we can catch up.”

On making just one sub: “There's always time to make changes. People are sometimes in a rush and others would make a lot [of subs] but in the end it's just one person making them. In the last five minutes, they were going to be having corners and throwing everything at it from set plays. What we had on the pitch was right. The key was to defend against those moments in the final minutes. That's why I opted against making more changes.”

Grinding out a win: “To win here you have to suffer, that's how it is. It's the law of San Mames. It's what they say and when I was here on the other side we made the opposition suffer until the very end. We were better in the first half, we dominated more and we created danger through the middle of the pitch. We hit the post twice and we could have had a bigger lead. They had a clear chance as well, mind, with Aduriz when we got the [offside] line wrong. In the second half, Athletic pressed us hard and made it difficult. We gave the ball away a number of times and, without creating too many clear-cut chances, Athletic are always a threat when the ball is bouncing around the area. We had to work really hard because we were not comfortable. Athletic are a good side. They deserve credit.”