Luis Enrique admits he is at a loss to explain Barcelona’s second-half improvement in Wednesday’s 3-1 win against Athletic Bilbao.
La Blaugrana progressed to the Copa del Rey last four courtesy of a 5-2 aggregate victory over the Basques, but they were forced to come back from an early Inaki Williams goal at Camp Nou, and the Coach found it difficult to understand the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of his side’s performance.
“It was an exciting game and both teams deserve much credit,” he said after the game.
“It was a very demanding game, but it’s hard to explain why [a team can play so differently] in such a complex game like football.
“Athletic will always demand a lot of you, and they stopped us from playing in the first half, but we still managed to find the right solutions.
“We’ve always been loyal to our style of play. We’ve won all three games [against Athletic], and that’s very difficult.
“[On Nolito], I don’t like to speak about other professionals in public, but we have until Monday midnight [to sign him].”
