Ernesto Valverde: Barcelona loss hard to explain

Barcelona Coach Ernesto Valverde admitted it is ‘difficult to explain’ his side’s shock 2-1 defeat at Leganes on Wednesday.

Lega had been bottom of the table ahead of the game and whilst Philippe Coutinho gave the visitors the lead, the hosts hit back through Nabil El Zhar and Oscar Rodriguez within 68 seconds of each other in the second half.

“It is difficult to explain how this happened,” Valverde told reporters after the match.

“This will be a frustrating answer, but in football these things can happen and it was a night which was not for us.

“We had the game under control, we were within our game plan and expectations but then the opposition inflicted a lot of damage in just one minute of the game.

“That totally changed the entire complexion and gave us a lot of work to do, then they sat back, were defensively disciplined and made it difficult to create chances.

“We had a double chance (efforts from Coutinho and Ivan Rakitic) but we did not create as many chances as we wanted to.

“Now we have dropped five points in just three days, it is a lot and we must rectify this.”

Tags Ernesto Valverde
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