Enrique felt the crucial moment was Luis Suarez’s 11th-minute opener, which allowed them to take firm control of the contest.
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Lionel Messi will start on the bench for Barcelona in Saturday’s La Liga “Clasico” at Real Madrid (1715 GMT) following his recovery from a knee injury, according to the official lineups.
Iniesta (9.34) and Claudio Bravo (8.67) deserve ample praise for their excellent performances at the Bernabeu, but it was Neymar who stole the plaudits in Madrid in yet another fine showing from the Brazilian.
FC’s Paul Mariner and Alexis Nunes dissect a disastrous day for Rafa Benitez’s Real Madrid in El Clasico.
“I had a great time, because Barcelona were far superior in every aspect – in attack, defence, pressure, intensity”, he said.
“I don’t think Real Madrid gave up”.
Enrique had said in his Friday news conference that he would wait until the last minute to decide whether to start the club’s all-time top scorer. This group has the quality to do it better than we did.
“We were at a superior level and generated superiority in many areas of the pitch. It is a tough night, a hard night for all of us”.
“The important thing is to be happy day to day with what I’m doing, my present is Castilla”. We didn’t expect to lose and play so badly.
“When you lose to Barcelona, the fans feel hurt and they want an explanation”.
“We need to get over this and focus on the next match as soon as possible”, said Benitez.
Two first-half goals from Hernan Perez moved Espanyol into the top half of the league with a 2-0 win over Malaga. “We have to get ourselves out of this situation”.
“Throughout the game we did what we had wanted to do, and it came out well”. We managed to that on a few occasions but not on others, and were made to pay for that.
“If football was like maths, then it would always work out as planned”. Our plan was to keep possession. I can not say what will happen in the future.
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“Madrid had a big chance early on in the second half”. We were solid at the back too and it was more the merit of Barca than the fault of Madrid, ” he added.
