Bilbao: Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has recognized the opposition being boldered by his side now because they could no longer rely on Lionel Messi, after Catalan was held 1-1 from Athletic Bilbao in Laliga on Saturday.
The late strike from Memphis Devay canceled this header of Martinez to get Barca a point but Koeman admitted his team was still very felt the lack of the top scorer of all time and former captain, two weeks after he left Barca for Paris St Germain to follow 21 years in the club.
“I don’t like to keep talking about the same thing but we talk about the best players in the world and the opponents are always more afraid when Messi is around,” Koeman told reporters.
“It’s also the same for us, if you give feedback to Messi, he usually doesn’t lose the ball.
You can feel that he isn’t here anymore.
We all know it but we can’t change it.” Barca experienced a strong start in their first match without Messi to subside to a 4-2 victory over Real Sociedad last week but was given a cold dose of reality against a strong athletic team, which defeated them for most of the bar.
game.
“I think we experienced too much trouble at the start of the match.
They put us under a lot of pressure and did it very well and we couldn’t play with patience,” Koeman added.
“But I have to highlight the attitude we show after we leave.
I think the lottery is fair because if you play like we do on the ground like this, you will always experience a problem.
I have no complaints about the results.”