Barcelona boss Luis Enrique, who is in his last season with the Catalan club, said that their loss to Juventus in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday was like “reliving a nightmare.”
Coming on the back of a shock loss to Malaga in the La Liga, Barcelona were beaten 3-0 in Turin with Paulo Dybala scoring a brace in the first 22 minutes and Giorgio Chiellini netting the third as Enrique’s team failed to get a crucial away goal.
“This time, it’s more difficult to believe in a comeback. It was like reliving a nightmare... I can’t get the first half out of my head,” Enrique said using the word “nightmare” no less than four times.
Barcelona were in a similar hopeless position after the first leg of their Round of 16 match against Paris Saint Germain in February, where they lost 4-0 in France, but put in a spectacular performance in the home leg to win 6-1 in the end, However, Enrique was not too sure of an encore.
“It’s difficult to pull off another turnaround like the one against PSG, although on the other hand I also thought it was unlikely that we could lose again like we did against the French team,” Enrique was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“It was a very difficult first half, very similar to the one in Paris, and although we improved after halftime, the first half was full of problems. It’s difficult for a coach to try and do everything right for the team and then realise that he hasn’t succeeded,” he added.
The Barca boss also spoke about how the team made the same mistakes they made against PSG.
“It’s like a nightmare. We’ve had very little luck of late, and now I can only hope that from tomorrow we get back on our feet,” he said. “In the first half, the [Barca] players were determined, but we made the same mistakes from Paris, and that’s a problem.
“Our second half was much better. But I still have the opening half in my head, like a nightmare. Maybe it wasn’t [a repeat of] Paris, but it was like the third half from Paris.
Enrique also took responsibility for the “nightmare” defeat, saying that while he didn’t want to think about it a lot, he remained optimistic.
“I’m an optimistic person. But I take responsibility for this. I’m the coach and the buck stops at me. Until tomorrow, I don’t even want to think about how we can come back.”
Meanwhile, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said this win was just the first step and they had to repeat the performance at Nou Camp.
“We have to put some brakes on our enthusiasm,” he said. “Of course, the lads have produced a great performance, both in attack and in defence. But it’s just the first step. In Barcelona, it will be different and we have to try and score a goal,” Allegri quoted as saying by Reuters.
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