Luis Enrique lauds 'spectacular' Ter Stegen

Luis Enrique praised the performance of Marc-Andre ter Stegen as a much-changed Barcelona side drew 1-1 against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday. 

He was also happy with the displays of B team players Sergi Samper and Wilfrid Kaptoum, both of whom were handed starts in Germany. 

"I felt positive about our performance," the Barcelona boss said.  

"I wanted to give the players who have played the most minutes a rest and I saw good signs from us against a team that really had to win. 

“The game was a litmus test for us.”

Lionel Messi gave Barcelona the lead, but Leverkusen came back to level the scores and it was only the heroics of Ter Stegen which saw them unable to take all three points. 

The draw means they drop into the Europa League, with Roma qualifying as runner-up to Barcelona. 

“Marc [ter Stegen] was spectacular,” Luis Enrique continued. 

“He was really safe against a dangerous Bayer side - and also back in Germany, where he is from.” 

As group winners, Barça will now face one of the runners-up in the other group, but Luis Enrique says he’s not bothered about who the Catalan side are paired with.

"In the last 16 we'll face whoever we're lucky enough to be drawn with,” he added.