Off the wire
Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Sept. 25  • Premier urges parallel development of urbanization, modern agriculture on Henan trip  • Roundup: China, Iran and Palestine unbeaten at Asian Championship  • APEC ministers meet in C. Philippines to push for integration of micro, small, and medium enterprises  • Vietnam News Agency marks 5 years of Chinese-language news service  • 2nd LD Writethru: FIFA president Sepp Blatter under criminal investigation  • Vietnam to have fewer print newspapers, more online ones: ministry  • Kenya's Cherono to seek fast time at Berlin Marathon  • Results of 2015 FIBA Asia Championship  • Urgent: Landmark UN summit opens, outlines roadmap towards sustainable development  
You are here:   Home

Luis Enrique wants improvement after Celta mauling

Xinhua, September 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

FC Barcelona coach Luis Enrique wants to see a rapid reaction from his side in the wake of their 4-1 defeat away to Celta Vigo on Wednesday night.

Barca have had little time to recover from their humiliation before entertaining Las Palmas on Saturday afternoon.

"Hopefully the defeat in Vigo will inspire us to bounce back to go back to getting good results," he commented, before explaining one of the big dilemmas ahead of him.

The coach rested Ivan Rakitic in Vigo and the Croatian will come back into the side, but with a Champions League tie at home to Bayer Leverkusen in midweek and a trip to play Sevilla the following weekend, Luis Enrique knows he has to strike a balance between playing his strongest side, while ensuring his squad don't get over tired.

"If I rotate the squad and we lose, people will see that as a massive error," he said, adding that he saw the players "train and compete. I will make the judgements, but I always try to so the best for the team."

Finally Luis Enrique insisted that the defeat was not down to individual errors. "We have to improve both as a team and also as individuals," he commented, while defending goalkeeper, Ter Stegen, who conceded four goals for the second time this season.

"Ter Stegen and (Claudio) Bravo don't concede the goals, Barca do," he said. Endit