Enrique: Barca mentality intact

Luis Enrique is adamant complacency will not creep into Barcelona’s psyche after their 3-1 victory over Villarreal in the Copa del Rey semi-finals on Wednesday.

Goals from Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique ensured the Catalans took control of their tie with the Yellow Submarine in the last four ahead of the return leg on March 4.

“Our mentality doesn’t change, we’ll attack [Villarreal] at El Madrigal and try to win the game. Assumptions kills you,” the Coach said after the game.

“I foresee a very difficult match. The objective is not to score a goal but win the game and avoid any risks. Still, it’ll be very difficult.

“I saw a very good game, and the result was good. It doesn’t define the tie, but it’s good. Having missed a penalty gives you the feeling that it could have been better.

“It's a good result which doesn’t do my team justice from what I saw of them, in my opinion.

“[On conceding a goal], this is football and our opponents have quality. They shot from very far out and it was a very powerful strike.

“In the end, they dropped deeper and we created danger. We’ll come out to attack at El Madrigal too, and I foresee a good game.

“The match had peculiarities like the one seen 10 days ago [in La Liga]. We gave a very complete performance in attack and after they equalised.

“We saw a more defensive Villarreal, who wanted to win. We tried to offset [their threat on] the counterattack, flood the wings, seek the second phase [of play] and press high.

“Normally the penalty taker would be Leo [Messi]. The second choice is Neymar. Players choose among themselves and I suppose [Neymar] asked for permission to take [the penalty].

“I’ve been a player and it’s very important to be confident, but the default taker is Leo, it’s always been him.”

Tags Lionel Messi Luis Enrique Neymar
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