Luis Enrique: the defeat is deserved

Luis Enrique said the defeat was deserved after watching FC Barcelona crash to a shock 1-0 loss at home to Malaga.

"It was not our day and that means that what happened, happened," he explained to the press after the match.

Luis Enrique used the defeat to explain that at times a good performance from Barca's rivals can be as decisive as their attacking play.

"Games like this are good to make you realize that and I think the defeat is deserved," he said.

The measure of the surprise in the result is that Malaga had lost on their last 12 visits to the Camp Nou Stadium, but the effect of the defeat is that Barca failed to leapfrog Real Madrid at the top of the BBVA Primera Liga table and if Madrid win away to Elche on Sunday, Barca will slip to four points behind and need favors from other sides in order to be able to win the title.

"This defeat hurts us, but Malaga played very well thanks to being well positioned on the pitch," said Luis Enrique to the press.

"I would separate the first half from the second. In the first half we played more or less well, our rival took advantage of an error to score and we were well organized. But in the second half we saw we were not in a good individual or collective moment."

Barca's next game is a tough Champions League clash with Manchester, City who scored five goals past a hapless Newcastle United on Saturday.

"Time will tell if that affects us, defeats are painful and it's hard to recover from them. We have a great challenge ahead of us and we have to get past it," concluded Luis Enrique. Endi