Football
ESPN staff 9y

Luis Suarez dispelled Barcelona doubts - Luis Enrique

Barcelona had "a few doubts" about Luis Suarez upon his summer arrival from Liverpool but his rise at the club has been "meteoric," boss Luis Enrique has said.

Barcelona go into the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal with Paris Saint-Germain in a commanding position after a superb brace from Suarez gave them a 3-1 win in the French capital last week.

Uruguay striker Suarez had joined Barca from Liverpool in the summer having been handed a four-month FIFA ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup, and he initially took time to replicate the goal-scoring form that had made him one of the Premier League's leading stars.

Luis Enrique told a news conference ahead of the return game against PSG that the club had been concerned initially but that the 28-year-old's attitude had ensured his success at the Camp Nou.

"Suarez gave us a few doubts at first," the Barca coach said. "We can only speak in the highest terms of his thought process and willingness from the word go.

"The uncertainty you have when you sign a player is just that, even if he is world-class. You have to get used to a team, your teammates, the city. It can be difficult. His adaptation has been meteoric."

Barca will also have Lionel Messi in attack, with the Argentine having netted his 400th goal for the club in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Valencia.

"Leo is in the best form possible going into the game and 400 goals is an impossible number," the coach said. "These figures are unique and unrepeatable."

While Barca's victory at the Parc des Princes has led many to write PSG off, Luis Enrique warned that the Ligue 1 champions could still mount a comeback.

"The difficulty is in the two-leg nature of the game," he said. "[PSG] are an opponent coming here with a deficit and they won't be holding anything back.

"We're going to go out and try and win the match -- we want to have the ball and we have to be ready if they play against us in a similar way to the first leg, or in a completely different way. We'll have to evaluate what sort of game it's going to be."

Asked about the chances of each side progressing, he said: "It was a good result but it was not definitive. We need another big game to put it to bed. If we start bandying percentages about we can fool ourselves or make mistakes in our preparation for the match."

Luis Enrique, who will have Andres Iniesta and Jeremy Mathieu available for the match, said he would not be settling for a draw in the home leg.

"I always think positively," he said. "The objective is to go through but in my understanding a win is always better than any other result. There will be moments when we'll suffer, as happened in Paris. The objective is to go through but I wouldn't settle for any result that isn't a victory."

Barca have enjoyed a notable upturn in results and performances since the turn of the year, when Luis Enrique's future at the club -- as well as his relationship with Messi -- had attracted widespread coverage in the media.

Asked about his future at the news conference, the coach said: "I'm focused on tomorrow's game and everything else will be sorted out in its own time and there's no need to be worried about anything other than the game. We'll take a look at the season when it's over."

^ Back to Top ^