Costly errors caused Barcelona loss to Manchester City-Luis Enrique
Luis Enrique thought his Barcelona side were spectacular for 40 minutes against Manchester City, but lamented the amount of errors they committed as they were eventually beaten 3-1 in England on Tuesday.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the first half and Barca could have added to their lead before Ilkay Gundogan capitalised on a stray Sergi Roberto pass to level the score just before the break.
That goal turned the game on its head, with the home crowd driving Pep Guardiola's men forward in the second period. Kevin De Bruyne scored a stunning free kick and Gundogan added his second of the evening as the Blaugrana failed to deal with a much improved City side.
Manchester City
Barcelona
Barca still lead their Champions League group and remain favourites to qualify in top spot despite the defeat, but Luis Enrique was left to blame mistakes as a three-game winning run against Premier League clubs came to an end.
"We played 40 spectacular minutes, especially on this stage against a top rival," Luis Enrique said in his postgame news conference. "But we committed a key mistake and that hurt us because we are not machines.
"It's a shame that we have made that error for the first goal and from there on we had a tough time.
"When you concede like that, it's normal that you have a bad spell. During that moment we wanted to continue to dominate the game, but it wasn't possible because of errors we made and pressure from City, too.
"We didn't have much of the ball and City took advantage of our errors. We just couldn't control the game in the same way and the result reflects that: first 40 minutes for us, the rest for them."
With nine points from four games, Barca remain two clear of Guardiola's side and five clear of third-placed Borussia Monchengladbach. For that reason Luis Enrique insists he is not worried about Tuesday's defeat.
"I'm not worried or surprised, they're things which happen in football," he added. "If things don't go to plan after playing well for 40 minutes then it's a strange feeling, but [City] played really well. They provoked more errors than us."
Barca were without Andres Iniesta, Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique for the game -- three regular starters -- but as he'd said in the preview to the match on Monday, Luis Enrique didn't want to use injuries as an excuse.
"If you lose it's not because of who's not there," he said about the missing players.
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